Forgiving The Past
by AMLNZ2018
Summary: 10 years have passed since Mai last had contact with any of the people she had once considered family. Naru and Lin are back in Japan and Mai has to contend between her own work and the dangerous investigations of SPR while learning to forgive those who had abandoned her when she needed them the most. Now rated M for content in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1 - The Visions

_Two men stood up from what appeared to be luxurious plane seats and collected their belongings from the compartments above them. Neither of the men spoke but it was obvious they were travelling together. They looked a lot older than the last time she had seen them. The taller of the two had started going grey slightly in the longish hair covering his ears. The shorter man's face had gotten more chiseled. Both men still appeared to be fond of dark clothing._ _She followed them down the plane isle and out of the doors into what Mai now recognised as the international terminal in Tokyo._ _The clock on the arrival and departure board stated that it was 4:55 pm on 8 May 20xx._

 **So they're coming** **back to Japan**. Mai Taniyama thought as she blinked back the vision that had blinded her sight briefly. She no longer fell unconscious when they occurred which was a good thing or she'd end up sleeping the day and night away. They happened on a fairly regular basis these days and didn't always have anything to do with whatever action she was making or the items she was touching.

 **Interesting. It's been a long time.** She finished rinsing off the bowl that she had been washing after dinner and placed it in the rack next to the sink to drain. Glancing at the calendar next to her refrigerator, she noted that it was still April. She had a couple of weeks to prepare and decide how this would impact her. She wasn't sure if she was ready to see them or any of the others yet. It had been 10 years since she'd seen any of them after all.

Mai sighed and leaned back against the kitchen counter. **I assume this means Naru plans to reopen SPR.** The emotions she felt over this were complicated. There was some small amount of happiness that the two men who had changed her life completely at the age of 15 were back in the same country that she lived in. But the main emotions flashing in her eyes looked to be sadness, anger and a little bit of resentment. Her eyes were that only sign of those emotions however.

Mai had long ago learnt to keep her face bland and avoid showing her emotions. It was too draining having to come up with excuses for why her once expressive face randomly showed fear or disgust at the oddest times to the people she worked with. It was easier to keep such emotions to herself. It was a skill that had certainly given her an advantage in her line of work. As did her visions. Solving cold cases didn't usually have a lot of leads to go on after all. The research and investigation skills that she had learnt while working at SPR had transferred quite easily to solving those difficult puzzles that had left the original homicide detectives stumped. Mai owed a lot to those three short years that she had worked for Naru as his assistant.

Glancing at the clock, Mai decided she had time to check her emails and do some more research into the current cold case she was working on and left her kitchen, turning right in her hallway and into the office placed in the middle on the left. She flipped the lid of her laptop open and waited for the window to load to the log in screen. Pressing her index finger lightly to the touch pad, the window flashed its recognition of her finger print and loaded the home screen where she preceded to open her emails.

One new email stood out and gained Mai's interest. A friend in missing persons had a case where some very concerned parents were asking for help to find their missing teenage daughter. The girl had been missing for a week now and all leads so far had come to a dead end. Apparently the teen had a responsible and reliable nature so running away was not a character trait to be expected of her. The cop, who knew of Mai's talents, often sent her similar requests when he suspected foul play and had nothing to go on. Mai typed a quick response to let him know that she'd be in first thing in the morning to see if she could _see_ anything.

Nothing else in her emails held her interest so Mai closed her emails and logged into the online police database to research the case she had selected earlier that afternoon to work on.

The 34 year old wife of a local business man had disappeared in the early hours of a Sunday morning about 15 years ago and had never been found. She had left behind two boys, aged 3 and 5 years, sound asleep in their beds. The detective at the time had found specks of chemically diluted blood under a decorative carpet mat located in the living room but hadn't been able to confirm or deny that it was the wife's blood or find any other evidence of foul play. Nor had he able to break the husband's alibi of being out of town at the time of the investigation. It had been a neighbour the following Monday evening who had heard the crying children and come to investigate the reason that had alerted the police to the wife's disappearance.

Mai spent the next few hours researching the husband's activities from the year before his wife's disappearance until now along with the neighbourhood crime reports taken around that time to see if she found any patterns or connections. She would make appointments with the husband and sons tomorrow to see what her own skills would bring up.

At around 11 pm, Mai held back a yawn and closing the laptop lid decided it was bed time. She left the office and entered her bedroom. It was while she was brushing her teeth at her en-suite sink that she received the next vision of the people she once called family.

 _A woman with long red hair pinned back in a neat bun was sitting behind a dark coloured wooden desk. Mai stood at her shoulder. She was typing on a black keyboard and Mai could see a medical report. The patient, a 7 year old boy, had apparently broken an arm falling out off the roof of the house he'd climbed up on. He was lucky it wasn't his neck. The date and time on the computer screen put the vision as taking place as 10:43 am on May 9th. The shrill sound of a phone rang out and the woman paused her typing to pick up a sleek cell phone sitting on the desk to the left._

 _"Hello, you've reached Ayoko Matzusaki... Lin-san! Long time, no see!... You are?... Of course! I'll see you then!..."_

 _Mai wasn't able to hear the other side of the phone call but thankfully Ayoko opened up a calendar planner on her computer and selected the date May 12th. She typed "catch up at SPR office" into the 11 am time slot._

 _The vision changed then flicking between other members of the old SPR team. A long haired male with brown hair in a temple. A blonde haired male in priest garb in a church office. A dark haired woman in a pale blue kimono having her make up retouched while a director talked in one ear about the next segment for filming. A dark haired male pushing a pair of glasses up the bridge of his nose while he read reports at his desk. Mai watched as each one answered a phone call, exclaiming in surprise and confirming attendance to a meeting. The only person Mai didn't get a vision of, was herself._

Mai closed her eyes, sighed again, and finished preparing for bed. She wasn't sure what the lack of vision of herself meant. Whether, she was deliberately not being called or whether they just had no contact information to find her. Either could be true. She'd have to wait for the next vision to be sure.

It was time for bed. Plenty of time to figure out the missing pieces of the puzzle another time and between the cold case and the missing teenage girl case, Mai had plenty of work to get on with tomorrow as it was.


	2. Chapter 2 - The Missing Teen

Shortly before 7 am the next morning, Mai strode in through the automatic glass doors of the police bureau. Her long brown hair tied back in a neat ponytail. Her slim body clothed in a pair of black skinny jeans, a light blue blouse and a black blazer. A half drunk travel cup of tea was carried in one hand while a heavy file of documents that she had printed off yesterday was held under the other arm. Her face was lightly made up. It was a casually natural look. Some tinted moisturizer, a hint of mascara and a light pink lipstick that seemed to highlight the bright caramel colour of her eyes.

Stopping briefly at the front reception desk to collect any messages, Mai drained the rest of her tea and headed to her cold case department to dump her belongings on the desk in her office before strolling to the other side of the building to the missing persons department to Haru Takiana's desk. Takiana wasn't in yet but the case file with the missing teenager was sitting on his desk on top of an evidence storage box where he said he'd leave it in his email response to her emailed acceptance of helping the night before.

Plonking herself into Takiana's seat, Mai was startled by a vision of him sitting at his desk talking with Naru and Lin.

 _"So who are you are you reporting as missing?" Takiana asked them tapping a blue pen against a missing person report form. It was Naru who responded._

 _"My old assistant. Mai Taniyama. We lost contact with her when we closed our office down 10 years ago to go back to England and attend family obligations. We've just come back to reopen the office and apparently everyone in our team seems to have lost contact with her around the same time. No one has been able to find any contact information for her and I'm worried. She was a huge trouble magnet back then and the lack of contact makes me concerned that something has happened to her."_

 _"Did you say Mai Taniyama? You're reporting Mai Taniyama as missing?" Takiana chuckled loudly in amusement making both Naru and Lin frown._

 _"Is there something amusing about that request, Takiana-san?" Lin finally asked when Takiana's chuckles finally calmed down._

 _"Sure there is" Takiana responded with a grin. "You're in the wrong department for a start. She ain't in missing persons. Although she does help out every now and then when we get stuck in a difficult case. You want to head down to the cold case department if you want Taniyama-san."_

 _Naru and Lin shared a confused look with each other before Naru asked Takiana if he could please show them the way. Takiana looked up at the door of the missing persons department and stated "No need. Looks like she's come to collect you herself. Must of seen you coming in one of her visions."_

 _Naru and Lin stood up and turned around to look at her in shock._

The vision ended then. Mai didn't see a date or time in the vision so she had no idea when this would happen but she assumed it would be either on May 12th or in the days following if the visions yesterday meant anything. **I guess that answers the question of why I didn't get a vision of my own phone** **call.** Mai thought to herself before flipping open the missing teen file to read through Takiana's notes.

The teen had last been seen leaving her school gates by her friends and according to her mother she usually got home within 20 minutes of leaving school. But on this day, Sara Kimikara left the school and didn't make it home at all. Somewhere in the 20 minute walk home, she had disappeared without a trace.

Mai noted that Takiana had collected the girl's hair brush for DNA collection. Putting down the file, she opened the box and pulled out the evidence bag containing the brush. She had a vision before she had even unsealed the bag.

 _A young girl who looked about 14 walked out of the school gates. She turned left and began walking. 10 minutes into her walk she crossed under an overpass bridge. A tall man in dirty rumpled clothing grabbed her from behind and dragged her to a bushy area hidden by one of the walls holding up the overpass bridge. Mai watched sadly as he raped the girl violently before smashing her head with a heavy rock. Looking around he covered the girl's body with debris and took off._

By the time Takiana got to his desk, Mai was just finishing the details on a well drawn portrait of the man who had attacked the teen girl and handed him a report of her vision as well as a map of the girl's route home from school that was marked with the place she had been attacked and where her body could be found. Mai handed Takiana the report, map and portrait before bowing and saying "I'm sorry." Takiana just patted her on the head and replied "It can't be helped. With an "Then I'll be leaving" Mai left the missing persons department to get on her own case. Both knew that far too many of Takiana's cases usually ended up in homicide by the time he would generally call Mai in for help. Only on the rare happy occasion did Mai help him find a missing person alive though they weren't always safe.

Several hours later Mai's email pinged with an email from Takiana advising that poor Sara's body had been found and an alert for the man in her portrait had gone out to detain him on suspicion of rape and murder.

Her cold case was solved two days later with the help of her visions to break the husband's alibi and his resulting confession. Mai had yet to take a case that couldn't be solved.

...

Three weeks later:

A very tired Oliver Davis and Lin Koujo walked off the plane on the 8th of May, collected their luggage and picked up the rental car that was waiting for them. It was late afternoon and the flight from England had been long and not very pleasant, even while being in first class.

The flight attendants were overly attentive and female passengers overly annoying in reaction to both men's looks and neither one managed to get any peace and quiet during the flight. One particular young lady was relentless in trying to persuade Oliver into participating in her own little mile high club. Neither men had been interested but not even their usual cold demeanor could make the girl desist. Both hoped quite strongly that they would never see her again.

They drove straight to the old SPR office in Shibuya, having purchased the building before leaving England this time rather than leasing it. Modifications to expand the offices had already been completed and the equipment shipped over though they had kept the cafe underneath as an extra source of income.

Another new addition to the building was the three bedroom apartment built over the top for them to live in. The stair entrance of which was in the front lobby of the office. After collecting the keys from the cafe, both men headed straight up to the apartment to claim a bedroom each and put away their luggage. Someone had already been shopping and filled their kitchen with groceries as per the agreement they had with the cafe owner and Lin had no trouble putting together a quick dinner for them both and they settled in for an early night.

...

Mai looked at the clock on the laptop in her office. She had just finished responding to an email thanking her for her help in solving an ongoing homicide case. It was after 9 pm. **They will have arrived now.** She thought and yawned. It had been a long day and she was tired. She shut her laptop and headed off to get ready for bed.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been asleep when Mai opened her eyes and realised that she'd been pulled into the astral plane. She looked around curiously. It had been a long time since she had astral projected unconsciously. She was only partially surprised to find a 16 year old version of Naru staring back at her a short distance away. She hadn't seen him since living twin brother had gone back to England 10 years prior. His connection as her spirit guide only able to be active when Naru was in the same country. Mai quickly muttered a spell under her breath to prevent Eugene Davis from being able to tell or show his twin where to find her or tell him anything about her, as he walked closer to greet her.

"Mai! It's so good to see you again!" Eugene exclaimed reaching out to hug her.

"Davis-san. It's been a long time." Mai responded, stepping back from his outreached arms and bowing formally. Even in spirit form her face held no emotions. Eugene looked a little shocked at the formality.

"You're right, Mai, it has. But won't you call me Gene again? I have missed you!" Eugene asked sadly.

Mai sighed. "Very well, Gene-san. Is that better?"

Gene gave a big grin. "Much! Though it would be even better to hear it without honorifics!"

"As incorrigible as ever, I see." Mai stated as she knelt down. "How has the afterlife been treating you?" She asked.

Gene plonked himself down beside her in the relaxed slouch that only Western teens seemed to manage to get away with. "Mostly quiet. Especially when we were in England. It got lonely only having my idiot scientist of a brother to talk to. He may be older and more mature now but he's no less an idiot scientist than he was 10 years ago."

"Is he still a narcissistic tea loving jerk?"

"Always. The nickname Naru still fits him as well as ever."

"What about Lin-san and Mori-san? Have they been well? I saw Lin-san and your brother arrive in a vision but Mori-san wasn't with them. Is she coming later?"

"They are both as well as ever. I think Mori-san is staying in England for a while but will be coming back and forth as needed as the liaison between BSPR and JSPR. I always thought they'd get into a relationship over the years but other than a brief fling every now and then, nothing ever came of it."

"That's a shame for them. I always hoped for it too. How are your parents? I hope they are well?"

"Both are well and going strong. Mum has been nagging Naru for grandchildren but he doesn't seem to be interested in complying no matter how many beauties she throws at him."

"He'd have to pull his head out of his research long enough to see them before he could do that. Not to mention, she'd have to have brains smart enough to hold his attention once she got it." Mai remarked sarcastically. Even with the grades she'd accomplished at high school he'd only ever treated her like she was an idiot. The fact that she had been an honor student and was there on scholarship never seemed to cross his mind. They'd left before she graduated and went to college.

"Very true!" Gene grinned at her. Mai gave a wry smile back but Gene noticed that it didn't each her eyes. **She's changed.** He thought sadly. Mai used to be such a happy and bubbly girl whose face could be read easily like a book. Now it was hard to decipher any emotions from her face. It was even more stoic than his brother's! **I wonder what happened to her?**

"How has everyone been on this side of the ocean? I believe my brother and Lin are planning on contacting everyone tomorrow for a meet up."

"I am aware. I saw several visions just weeks ago telling me he would along with the day, time and location of the meet up. Of course I wasn't among those calls. I haven't a clue how the others have been either. I haven't seen or heard from any of them since you all left."

Gene was shocked at that. "You've heard from no one in the entire 10 years we've been gone?"

"Correct. So much for being a family. Anyway, forgive me Gene-san, but I'll be going now. I have a great lot of work to get on with tomorrow and I need some real sleep to accomplish it. Until next time."

Mai had pulled herself out of the astral plane before Gene could even respond. Upon waking up, she muttered another spell, setting wards to hide her presence both spiritually and magically. It had taken her a long time to learn and train in such things but it had become necessary when her powers had spiked exponentially 9 years ago. She was capable of a great many things now but had no intention of allowing them to know about it before she was ready to.

Closing her eyes, Mai drifted back to sleep. Interestingly, she was not alone. A small number of demons and spirits settled down around her, protecting their master in her sleep.


	3. Chapter 3 - Finding Mai

Eugene Davis blinked as Mai faded from the astral plane. **That was rather fast.** He thought. It was strange. Of all of them, she was the last person he'd suspect of losing contact with everyone. How did that even happen?

Gene drifted back to his brother's side. Oliver had been calling him in the mirror in his bedroom and been waiting rather impatiently for a response if his folded arms foot tapping meant anything.

"Well?!" Oliver spit out.

"What not even a hello, brother? What happened to all those manners that mum shoved down our throats growing up?" Eugene said teasingly.

"They're reserved for people worthy of receiving them. Did you find her?"

"Yes, I did. She looks as beautiful as ever."

"So where is she? We managed to find everyone else's contact details weeks ago but we can't see seem to find anything on her! It's frustrating! So tell me where she is already!"

Gene opened his mouth to tell Oliver Mai's location only to find he couldn't speak. "What the... I can't seem to tell you. Something is preventing me from letting the information out!"

Oliver groaned. "Seriously?! You too?!"

"Me too? Did Lin's shiki also fail?"

"Yes, and very pissed off about it, he is too."

"I'm not surprised. That man can usually find anyone. Well, she's not dead. Hopefully one of the others will have some clue about Mai's whereabouts. Although from what she said I have my doubts. Apparently she hadn't seen or heard from anyone since we left."

Oliver slumped on his bed at that and ran a shaky hand through his hair. "No one? She's heard from no one? In 10 years?" Are they idiots? She's a magnet for trouble! How could they leave her alone?"

"You're telling me. I was pissed off to hear it myself. I'm even more concerned now that I am restricted from sharing my knowledge with you. She's changed Naru. She was so formal with me. As if we were strangers and not someone who'd been close friends for 3 years."

Resigned, Oliver said good night to his brother and went to bed. He'd try again in the morning.

The next couple of days, they fared no better. Lin managed to phone everyone else and invite them for a catch up in two days time and they all accepted. But there was nothing on Mai Taniyama. Not even Lin and his shiki could find her. It was as if she'd disappeared off the face of the earth. They'd even gone as far as to wonder if she'd left Japan altogether but they found no evidence of Mai even having a passport let alone documentation to indicate that she had left.

By the time May 12th had rolled around and everyone had turned up for the catch up both Oliver and Lin were feeling frantic. There was nothing to be found. Nothing!

7 people currently lounged around a wooden coffee table covered in tea cups. Every one looked much older than when they'd last seen each other but none had changed much in any other respect that Oliver could see. Everyone was chatting away catching up with each other when John suddenly turned to Oliver and asked "By the way, mate. Where is Mai? Was she unable to attend?"

Everyone else stopped talking and turned to look at Oliver. They had all noticed that one particular person was missing and found it strange.

"Therein lies the million dollar question, John. I don't know. Lin doesn't know. His shiki can't find her. Gene has found her but for some reason he's been prevented from being able to tell me a thing. We were hoping you lot would be able to tell us something!" Oliver replied with his head hanging down. "We're at the point now of being beyond worried. We're downright scared something has happened. Please tell us at least one of you know where she is?!"

Oliver and Lin looked even more depressed when everyone shook their heads in the negative.

"I haven't seen Mai in years" said Yasu.

"Neither have I" replied John.

"Me neither" stated Monk.

"Ditto" came from Ayoko.

"Well I certainly wouldn't be expected to have kept in touch with Taniyama-san. We were barely even friends back then" came Masoko's snooty reply.

By the time everyone had left Oliver was at his wits end. He dragged Lin out of the office and down to the car.

"We're filling a missing persons report. I want Mai found."

Lin merely nodded in agreement and began to drive.

Oliver and Lin were escorted to the desk of a kind-hearted middle aged man. He had laugh lines around his eyes and mouth despite the obvious look of someone who had seen far too much of the dark side of human nature.

"Good afternoon, I am Haru Takiana. How can I help you today?"

"Good afternoon. I am Kazuya Shibuya and this is Lin Koujo. We'd like to file a missing persons report."

"So who are you reporting as missing?" Takiana asked them tapping a blue pen against a missing person report form. It was Oliver who responded.

"My old assistant. Mai Taniyama. We lost contact with her when we closed our office down 10 years ago to go back to England and attend family obligations. We've just come back to reopen the office and apparently everyone in our team seems to have lost contact with her around the same time. No one has been able to find any contact information for her and I'm worried. She was a huge trouble magnet back then and the lack of contact makes me concerned that something has happened to her."

"Did you say Mai Taniyama? You're reporting Mai Taniyama as missing?"

Takiana chuckled loudly in amusement making both Oliver and Lin frown.

"Is there something amusing about that request, Takiana-san?" Lin finally asked when Takiana's chuckles finally calmed down.

"Sure there is" Takiana responded with a grin. "You're in the wrong department for a start. She ain't in missing persons. Although she does help out every now and then when we get stuck in a difficult case. You want to head down to the cold case department if you want Taniyama-san."

Oliver and Lin shared a confused look with each other. **Cold cases?** Oliver thought before he asked Takiana if he could please show them the way. Takiana looked up at the door of the missing persons department and stated "No need. Looks like she's come to collect you herself. Must of seen you coming in one of her visions."

Oliver and Lin stood up and turned around to look at Mai in shock.

...

Mai was in the middle of reading the reports in her newest cold case file when the vision came.

 _Naru and Lin were standing at the reception desk requesting to file a missing persons report. The receptionist snagged a passing rookie officer and requested they escort them to the missing persons department. The young man bowed politely and showed them to Takiana's desk where Takiana bowed in greeting._

So they're here now. Guess I'd better go greet them. Mai closed the file neatly and put it to the side before standing up and leaving the office. She headed over to missing persons and had just come through the doors when she heard Takiana say "... Looks like she's come to collect you herself. Must of seen you coming in one of her visions."

Oliver and Lin stood up in shock and turned to look at her. Mai bowed politely.

"Davis-san. Lin-san. It's been a long time. Please follow me."

She turned without waiting for a response and began to leave the room. It took a moment before Oliver and Lin were composed enough to trail along behind her.

Mai was quiet as she lead the way to her office. Although her face didn't show it, she was conflicted. It had been far to long since she had seen them and she still felt angry at being abandoned. They were the catalyst of it all. Once Naru and Lin had decided to shut SPR down and head back to England everyone else drifted away too. Gene didn't have much of a choice in the matter. He was tied to his twin brother after all. But all the others left her too.

Opening the door to her office, Mai bowed and said "Please come in."

It was Lin who bowed back and replied with "Pardon our intrusion."

Mai proceeded to show them to the chairs in front of her desk while she sat down in her chair behind it.

"So, how can I help you both?" Mai asked.

This was about the time that Oliver finally snapped out if his shock. "Where have you been?! We've been trying to find you for weeks. We were worried that you had gotten into trouble somehow since you're such a magnet for it!"

"I've been right here. Where I've always been." Mai replied with a shrug.

Lin spoke up then. "I don't understand, Mai. We couldn't find anything on you. Not where you were. What you were doing. There were no records. No paper trails. Even my shiki couldn't find a trace of you. Actually, come to think of it, they still can't even though you are right there in front of us."

 **That's really strange.** Lin thought. Mai merely swept a hand in a brush off manner.

"And you won't. I have carefully blocked my spiritual presence from being seen unless I wish it. Not even Gene-san would be able to find me again unless I will it. Although you did surprise me the other night. I'd had no visions of you being back too. I would have thought you'd have passed on by now. 14 years is a long time for a ghost to still be hanging around."

Mai looked up at Oliver's side then and at the less than solid man standing there. Oliver look at in shock at that.

"You can see Gene?!"

"Of cause. He's right there beside you. I assume you can only communicate through a mirror still?"

Oliver nodded in response.

"What do you mean by visions?" He asked. "I thought you only got those when Gene guided you."

Mai snorted at that. "I haven't had a spirit guide since you all left. My visions however, never stopped. They just got more reliable."

"So you can still get images of the past? What triggers them now if not a spirit guide?" Lin asked.

"The past. The present. The future. I knew you were coming back three weeks ago. You can expect Mori-san to arrive in your office with a case next Monday. I believe she plans on staying in your spare room while here in Japan. As for triggers. Who knows. There is no pattern to it."

Both Lin and Oliver looked uncomfortable at that response. **Precognition? And we have a case?** Oliver thought. Mai continued to speak.

"I won't be joining you as part of SPR however. So please don't ask. I'm sure we'll see each other again soon. If you need me, you can ask for me here."

Mai stood then and walked to her door.

"Please excuse me. I have a case file to read through and start solving. I'd like to get it done with in the next day or two. I'll take you back to reception. You can find you're own way out from there."

She then left the room with a very bemused Lin and a very shocked Oliver following in her wake. Once at the reception desk, Mai merely bowed before turning and leaving.

Lin and and Oliver were very quiet in their thoughts as they drove back to SPR.


	4. Chapter 4 - SPR's 1st Case

It was a very tired Lin who stumbled into the kitchen to make breakfast the next morning. He'd ended up spending his entire night contemplating the mystery that was now Mai Taniyama rather than sleeping and he'd bet his bottom dollar that he wasn't the only one.

It took a great deal of power to hide one's spiritual self from other spirits. It takes even more to prevent his shiki demons from being able to find her. The power level that would require did not match the power level that he remembered Mai having 10 years ago. Back then she was barely able to keep the spirits back from attacking her although she did start showing a talent for purifying them in the last year. She certainly didn't have the power to hide herself. **Perhaps someone else is hiding her?** **But if that was the case then who and why?** Lin shook his head. Nothing fit with his image of who Mai had been to what he knew now. There were too many missing details.

Lin was also curious as to how no one in the once close knit team had heard or seen Mai in the whole 10 years they'd been gone. **What on earth had happened to cause that?** Lin had no idea. Everyone doted on Mai back then. Well, nearly everyone. Masako being the exception. The two girls had been rivals over Naru's attention back then.

Oliver drifted in the kitchen just then and from the looks of him, he'd been up all night too.

...

The following Monday morning an exuberant Modoka Mori came bouncing into the SPR office with luggage in each hand and a file under one arm. She hadn't given them any prior warning that she was flying in from England so she was a little curious that the two men she greeted appeared to have been expecting her instead of the usual surprised look they usually gave her whenever Modoka had done this in the past.

"Usually you look surprised when I enter unannounced. What gives?" Modoka asked.

"Mai has apparently developed precognition and warned us that you'd be arriving today with a new case to look at." Oliver responded.

"Oh! So you found her then?! Where was she? I can't wait to catch up with her! It's been forever! Get her to make us a cuppa, would you? I've missed her teas."

Modoka babbled happily as she plonked herself on the couch in the waiting room.

"I'm afraid you'll have to make it yourself or maybe Lin will. Mai refused to come back to SPR when we finally found her the other day. She's taken up detective work. Particularly in cold cases and occasional missing persons." Oliver replied sitting in an arm chair opposite her.

"Yes, we'd gone into the police station only to have the missing persons detective laugh at us for trying to report her missing. Told us we'd gone to the wrong department and we'd find her in the cold cases department. However, when we asked him to show us the way. He said there was no need. She must have had a vision because she was already waiting at the door for us. Came across as a huge shock, let us tell you."

Lin added as he placed three cups of tea on the coffee table before sitting on the couch next to Madoka.

"In cold cases? They can't be easy to solve even with her style of visions and I thought Gene came back to England with us so how was she able to trigger her visions with out him." Madoka said puzzled.

"Apparently she hasn't needed Gene's help to see visions since we left. They just never stopped. Come to think of it her eyes were a little unfocused when she said you'd be arriving today so I think she must have been having a vision of you right at that moment. If that's so, then she doesn't even need to astral project anymore to do it."

Oliver looked thoughtfully at the two others on the couch.

"She also said she could see Gene standing beside me. Even Masako-san couldn't do that last week when we had a catch up meeting with everyone. Well everyone except Mai that is. Did you know that none of them kept in contact with her in the 10 years we'd been gone? Although from the conversations that had been floating around, it appears that none of them got out of contact with anyone else but Mai. They all seemed to know exactly what they had all been up to even in recent months."

"I found that strange to be honest." Lin responded with a nod. "That girl was the center of everyone's affections 10 years ago but the moment we stepped on the plane to leave, all contact stopped. Something isn't right there."

"No one contacted her in 10 years? But her powers have grown or evolved even without Gene's guidance? Not to mention there was nothing to be found on her when we tried to find information on her last month so we could invite her back." Modoka looked concerned saying that.

"Yes and that's another mystery in itself. Not only is there no records or paperwork on Mai but she also managed to block her spiritual self from Lin's shiki as well as prevent Gene from telling me where she was when he found her and blocked him from finding her again too while she was at it."

Oliver was very put out when he said that. "Anyway, what's this case of yours? Mai didn't tell us anything about it other than you had one."

Madoka handed Oliver the file she had been holding on her lap until this point to read through before giving a quick summary.

"Apparently the in-laws of the Mayor of a local village has been having strange phenomenon occur in their home for the last year. It started with weird sounds and then things being moved slightly from where they were placed to disappearing completely and reappearing else where. Now they swear they've started seeing shadows where there shouldn't be any and hearing voices when they are alone. A maid girl went missing a month ago only to turn up screaming, battered and bruised in a random cleaning closet a week later. It had been completely empty only an hour before when the other maids had checked it."

Oliver listened to Madoka's summary of the case while reading through the reports in the file. It interested him so he decided to take it.

"Alright, Madoka, please phone the client and let them know we'll be there this Thursday. Lin, call the others and see who can attend. Maybe we can even get Mai to help. Ask Yasuhara-san if he'd be willing to research the history of this property for us..."

Just then the phone rang and Lin got up to answer it. "Yes? You've reached SPR. How can we help you?"

Lin was shocked to hear Mai's voice on the other end.

"Lin-san, tell Yasuhara-san to research the grounds keeper from 50 years ago while he's at it. He's the key to solving your case. And no, I'm not coming with you on this one. My talents shouldn't be needed in this case unless you don't solve it by Sunday, in which I'll turn up of my own accord."

Mai hung up then without giving Lin a chance to reply.

Oliver was stunned to see Lin's jaw had dropped open out of shock and gave him a questioning look. Lin answered while putting the phone down.

"That was Mai. She said to get Yasuhara-san to research the grounds keeper from 50 years ago as he was the key to solving the case and that she would turn up on Sunday, only if we hadn't solved the case by then."

Both Madoka and Oliver's jaws dropped at that.

"Well I guess we'd better get to work then." Madoka shrugged.

That Thursday afternoon, three dusty vehicles pulled into the drive of a large well kept villa. Oliver, Madoka and Lin had traveled in a black van full of equipment leading the way. The blue car behind it was driven by Hosho Takigawa, John Brown and Osamu Yasuhara. The last vehicle, a white one, had Ayoko Matsuzaki driving and Masoko Hara as a passenger.

Madoka had joined Yasuhara in researching the history of client's property as well as all the information they could find on the old grounds keeper from 50 years ago. They'd found little on him but planned to try talking to the locals in the village about him once all the equipment had been set up. They did find newspaper articles covering a number of abducted girls from around that time. Some had been found alive but abused. Most hadn't. The person behind the abductions had never been found. From Mai's hint over the phone, they'd concluded that the grounds keeper was the one who had done it but they were unsure whether the cause of the activity here was him or one of his victims. That remained to be seen. There were no reports of his death however. Just a note that he'd disappeared one day never to be seen again.

As soon as Masako stepped through the door she raised a kimono sleeve to her mouth.

"I can sense two spirits here. One is very angry. The other one comes across as rather vile. I can't tell you whether they are male or female as yet. They are still quite vague."

And so their investigation began.

...

On Sunday morning, they were no closer to solving the case. The spirits caused a lot of activity but refused to talk to Masoko about what they wanted and no amount of exorcisms regardless of the room had solved the issue. It was at this point that their client came running into the base room in a panic saying their teen aged granddaughter had gone missing in the night. Oliver immediately began splitting everyone into teams to help find her while assigning Lin to look over the footage from that night to see if anything had been caught on camera of the abduction.

Three hours into the search, they all received the biggest shock of their lives. Masako suddenly exclaimed that the ghosts were both gone.

And then the door bell rung. Mai stood on the door step waiting to be let in and she wasn't alone. The missing teenage girl was with her.


	5. Chapter 5 - Mai Saves The Day

At 2 am that Sunday morning, Mai's caramel coloured eyes snapped open from where she slept. She'd just had a dream of a teenager being abducted by a ghost at the place where the SPR were supposedly solving a case. It pissed her off that they had apparently failed and now it was up to her.

Getting up, she boiled her kettle and then got ready to leave. She filled her travel mug with fresh tea to help her wake up, got in her car and began to drive. By 9 am she had finally reached her destination. Without even getting out of her car, Mai closed her eyes and projected herself to the astral plane. She took a few minutes to get her bearings, taking note of each person and their position on the property.

Turning towards an old forest at the west side of the property, Mai took note of the teenage girl who had been abducted and the two ghosts who were fighting over her. The male ghost appeared to be trying to harm the girl and the female ghost appeared to be trying to stop him. They were in a rackity old one room cabin that had definitely seen better days.

Mai drifted her spirit form over the overgrown trail to the cabin with the ghosts and the frightened teen. She cast a spell to freeze the male ghost who was obviously the old grounds keeper that had disappeared 50 years ago, and then spoke at some length with the female one. She had been the last victim while he was alive. She'd managed to surprise him with a hunting knife that she'd found hidden in the cabin on the 5th day of her abduction and stabbed him in the throat with it. Unfortunately she was far too hurt by that point to have gotten help for herself even if there had been any easily available. She had refused to pass over before his ghost to prevent him from taking anymore victims.

Mai turned back to the grounds keeper's ghost. He was beyond saving so she wouldn't bother. She muttered a mantra under her breath three times, then passed her hands through a series of precise movements. His ghost disappeared with a scream and a puff of smoke. The female ghost bowed her thanks and disappeared with a golden glow.

Next Mai crouched beside the teen and introduced herself, explained that she'd come to find her and asked her if she'd like to help her with a magic trick. The teen, now calmed down nodded and reached out to grab the hand that Mai was holding out to her. Mai held her hand firmly, closed her eyes and woke up back in her car with the teen sitting in the seat beside her. Just another way that Mai's powers had grown from 10 years ago. It was no longer things but also people that she could transport through the astral plane.

"That was so cool!"

The teenage girl squealed as they got out of Mai's car and headed up to the front door to ring the bell. Mai merely asked that she keep her magic trick a secret as she didn't want it out that she had it. She was welcome to tell everything else about her story as she liked.

From the noise level drifting through the windows, the house was in a state of panic so it took a few minutes for anyone to answer the door. It was a maid who opened the door and screamed out in joy at seeing the missing teen they had been searching for in the last three hours. Her scream brought the entire household running to see what all the commotion was about.

Mai ignored her old teams mates and instead greeted and introduced herself to the owners of the house, the teen girl's grandparents, and to the girl's parents who were also in residence. Calmly she explained to them that their problems had been dealt with and the girl found safely before anything harmful could happen to her and then got up to leave, brushing aside offers of payment or thanks.

"I'm just happy that the girl is safe. That is all that matters. If you'll excuse me, I'll be leaving now."

She had slipped out the front door and was half way back to her car when the entire SPR team came running out after her yelling for Mai to wait. They were shocked that Mai didn't even stop to say hello in the first time that they had even seen her in 10 years. She didn't even acknowledge them.

Mai stopped, closed her eyes for a second, reopened them and turned to face the 8 people and 1 spirit standing with shocked faces looking at her and bowed politely.

"Davis-San. Lin-san. Gene-san. Nice to see again. Takagawa-san, Brown-san, Mori-san, Matsuzaki-san, Hara-san, Yasuhara-san. It's been a long time. Is there something further that I can help you with? I believe your case has been solved already so you should be packing up your equipment."

Mai's face was blank. No emotions showed on it bar the slightest hint of frustration showing in her eyes. Although only two of those present recognised it as such and only because they were used showing a similar face more often than they would like. The others were still in shock at the formality and the distance that their once sweet and bubbly Mai had just shown them when Oliver spoke up.

"How did you know?"

"I dreamed. I did tell Lin over the phone on Monday that I would turn up on Sunday if you hadn't solved the case by then. Was there anything else?"

"Did Gene tell you?"

"No. I still haven't given him permission to visit me again. He can only see me now because he is with you. I do wish you would pass over already. It's not good for a ghost to hang about for so long."

Gene snorted at that but only Mai could hear him. Although Masako looked stunned to hear that Gene was with them and she couldn't see or feel him in any way.

"I don't understand. I do not feel or see Gene here in any way. Why would you say he is?"

Mai merely walked over to Oliver and reached out a hand to touch the shoulder of the now laughing Gene. The others freaked out to see a teenaged version of Oliver bent over with his hands on his knees laughing his head off at the end of Mai's hand. Oliver looked at him with a rare smile and muttered "idiot medium" at him.

"Takes one to know one, brother."

Gene grinned back. This was the first time they had seen each other without the aid of a mirror in 14 years since Gene's death.

Mai muttered something under her breath and let go of Gene's shoulder. They all expected him to disappear out of view again at that point, but he didn't.

"Gene-san has a physical form now. It'll only last for half an hour. So make the most of it while you are able. You'll even be able to play with your PK without landing in hospital while Gene-san is in this form, Davis-san."

She went to step back then but before she could Gene whirled around grab her into a hug. Within minutes she was standing stiffly between the twin brothers as Oliver quickly joined them. They held her too tightly for her to break out of their hold.

"Thank you." Both whispered quietly in an ear each and a kiss on each check. They held her for a few seconds more before releasing her and throwing each other into a hug of their own.

Mai stepped away from them with embarrassment flushing her cheeks for the first time in many years. She was surrounded by the others before she could go far.

"How!" Masako demanded. "How where you able to see him? How did you make him visible? How did you make him SOLID?!"

She was almost screaming at this point. **Mai hadn't been able to that 10 years ago. Mai wasn't even able to SEE ghosts much 10 years ago. She wasn't strong enough to do that!** Masako was a stronger medium than Mai was and she hadn't even known Gene was right there. So how could Mai?!

Mai shrugged and calmly stated "I just can."

It was not a talent she showed others that often. Usually only when the person who was the center of the ghost's unfinished business was still alive and needed to talk it out to solve that ghost's issues and help them to pass on. It was something else she had discovered she could do when her power explosion occurred 9 years ago. Not that she would tell them that. It's not like they had been around to help her at the time.

"Jou-chan! Where have you been all this time? Why didn't you contact us over the years?" Monk finally spoke up then.

"I have been where I have always been Takagawa-san. I went no where. I phoned and emailed you all in the first few months that Davis-san, Gene-san and Lin-san left and heard back from no one. After a while I gave up. You all obviously had lives to get on with and so did I."

Mai's voice was calm, measured and even-toned but if one listened closely they could hear the strain of holding back emotions from it. The only other thing that gave away her emotions were her eyes.

Only Lin was paying any attention to those signs and it worried him. It was taking her a lot of control to hold those emotions back and he wondered why. He knew why he had to do it. Any loss of control could play havoc with his powers and cause his shiki to try and get loose. Oliver had to do it to keep from letting his PK loose and causing poltergeists. **So why did Mai?**

By this time, the others had started asking questions and demanding answers. Mai began to feel overwhelmed by the whole thing. She was tired and wanted to get back to her bed. She held a hand up to halt their questions.

"Enough already. You're giving me a headache with this nonsense. I'm tired. I'm hungry. I've been awake since my dream alerting me to your failure to solve this case in time since 2 am. Nor have I had a chance to eat in that time. I want to get home, eat a meal and get back to my bed. If you wish to see me to discuss your abandonment of me then Lin-san and Davis-san know how to contact me. I suggest you do it one at a time. I have no wish to be harassed as you are doing now."

Mai then bowed, waved a hand in a peculiar fashion and seemed to disappear in thin air as they blinked. Now under the cover of invisibility, Mai stalked off to her car, climbed in, removed the invisibility and took off before anyone realised she had gone.

Only Lin's shiki knew what she had done and as they whispered in his ear, they also mentioned the small shiki of her own that had appeared beside her that allowed her to do so. It only made him even more curious about what Mai was hiding.


	6. Chapter 6 - Kira's Story

By the time Oliver and Gene had come out of their absorption of being able to touch and see each other and began observing the others around them, Mai had already disappeared. Instead, they found the strange sight of Lin covering a grin and the others looking confused.

"Did Mai leave already?" Gene asked as the twins approached the others.

"She was right there! Right there! And then she disappeared!" Ayako stuttered while waving a hand in the direction Mai had been standing.

"I'm sure Mai didn't really disappear." Oliver stated, rolling his eyes in the process.

"She most certainly did!" Monk exclaimed.

"She had a little help to do so. Mai apparently has a few secrets up her sleeves these days." Lin said cheerfully.

"You seem to know how she did it, Lin-san?" John asked uncertainly.

"Yes. My shiki noticed her own little helper during Mai's disappearing act. Although whether Mai intentionally let them see it or not is another matter."

Oliver stiffened at that. "Her own little helper? Do you mean that Mai has her own shiki?"

"That's what my shiki are telling me. It would certainly explain why they weren't able to find her. Her shiki would have helped to build those wards to prevent it."

"It would also explain how she managed to prevent me from telling you where she was or to even find her again afterwards." Gene added. "Though I do wonder how a medium like Mai even managed to harness such things."

"Impossible! There's no way. Someone must have lent them to her!" Masako retorted.

"I think someone might be jealous." Ayoko smirked.

"Either way, did anyone else catch what she said before disappearing? She said we ignored her calls and emails and so she gave up. I don't remember that happening, do you?" Yasu butted in to change the subject.

"Yes, I caught that to. It was weird. None of you remember getting a voice mail or an email from Mai?" Madoka asked.

"Well... Now that I think about it, there was a couple of messages on my phone back then. It kind of seemed like she needed help but I was in the middle of a shoot and I assumed one of you must of helped her." Masako said quietly. "She never called back and we've never been close enough for me to reach out for no reason."

"Now that I think about it, I think I remember a few too. But I was back in Australia visiting family at the time. By the time I got back to Japan, there were no more calls and I was busy with church work." John said, scratching the back of his head, embarrassed.

"I was in the middle of surgery, I think." Ayoko added ashamed.

"Band tour." Muttered Monk.

"I guess I must of been in the middle of exams for university." Yasu said sadly.

"And we would have been in the middle of a case." Oliver was disappointed. None of them had been available to help Mai with whatever she had been going through at the time? And no one followed up later?

"She's right. We did abandon her." Came Lin's only comment. He couldn't help thinking that they'd only touched the tip of the iceberg of Mai's new skills, however.

Something that was only confirmed when Oliver listened to Kira's tale later. The abducted teen's story only raised more questions than she answered.

...

"So I was startled awake in the middle of the night to this male figure standing at the foot of my bed. I was really scared you know. He grabbed me even though he didn't really have a physical form and the next thing I knew we were in this really old cabin. It was really dusty and looked like it was falling apart in places. He hurt me a little but nothing more than a few bruises. Then this female ghost turns up and they started arguing. Every time the male tried to come near me, the female got in the way. They disappeared after a while and I went to sleep. Then he came back later and tried again only the female came back too and kept interfering. Next thing I know Mai-san arrives, but she's not really there, you know? Like she looked more like the ghosts than solid like me. But she waves her hands and the male freezes. Then she talks to the female for a while before turning back to the male. She muttered something and waved her arms around and then he poofs away screaming. The female ghost then bowed to Mai-san and disappeared on her own, turning gold. That's when Mai came to talk to me. She told me who she was and that she'd come to find me and then asked me if I could help her with a magic trick. I was curious by then and agreed, so I grabbed the hand she held out. That was a weird feeling. Like she was there but she wasn't. Then she closes her eyes and opens them again and the next I know, we're sitting in her car in our driveway! It was so cool! Then we got out of the car and rang the door bell and the rest you know."

The excited teen was being interviewed by Oliver in the base room. He had a video camera recording the interview and he was glad he did because nobody else would have believed the story without it.

"So when she was in the cabin she wasn't there in physical form, but in spiritual form?"

"Yep! Though she was plenty solid when we got back to the car."

"Just how did you get back to the car? Did you walk?"

"Nope, I told you. She closed her eyes, opened them again and the next thing I knew we were sitting in the car. No time passed at all. It kind of felt like the same as when the male ghost took me in the first place but way less scary."

"Like the same as the ghost... If she was in spirit form then she must of astral projected herself to find you from her car. Interesting that she managed to perform an exorcism while in that form but I still don't get how she managed to bring you back that way. That's nearly impossible."

"Mai-san just called it a magic trick. Though now I understand why she said to keep her trick a secret. No one would believe me anyway."

"I believe you Kira-san. I'm just trying to wrap my mind around how she accomplished it."

"Ah OK. I understand. Anyway that's all I can tell you, so can I go now?"

"Of course. Off you go. I'm sure your parents are anxious to make sure you are OK."

Oliver waved his hand in the direction of the door as the teen skipped out of the base, before turning off the camera while deep in thought. **I wonder if she would demonstrate that particular trick on camera, if I asked? Probably not, but it wouldn't hurt to ask. She's proving extremely useful now with her new powers. I hope I can convince her to come back to SPR. Lin's news about her shiki was also surprising. I've never heard of a medium also being an onmyoji.**


	7. Chapter 7 - A Mother's Plea

The following morning Oliver received a call on his cell phone with an international number. His mother's phone number to be exact. He groaned before putting the call on speaker phone and answering in English.

 _ **"Mother."**_

 _ **"Noll! I just received the most interesting photo from Madoka! You and Gene both kissing the same girl! Apart from the fact that I'm curious as to who this girl is, how is it possible for Gene to be in the photo when he's a spirit? He looked pretty solid too."**_

 **I'm going to kill Madoka!** Oliver pulled at his hair in frustration.

 _ **"Gene was pretty solid at the time. Though it was only for half a hour. The girl is Mai Taniyama. She was my assistant at JSPR 10 years ago. Gene was her spiritual guide back then and often guided her dreams to help solve our cases. Apparently she developed some new talents after we came back to England and turning ghosts solid with her touch is just one of them. Letting them remain solid for a short period of time is another."**_

Luella was stunned to hear this.

 _ **"Noll... Noll, do you think if you asked her... do you think she'd do it again? For your father and I? Just once... If we could see and touch and talk with him... Just once... Please, could you ask her?"**_

Oliver had to delay his answer for a minute because his office phone rung just then. Asking his mother to hold on for a moment, Oliver answered the office phone.

"Kazuya Shibuya speaking. Who is this?"

"Davis-san, put me on speaker. I need to talk to your mother." Mai responded.

Oliver did so with a wry expression on his face. He still couldn't get used to the harsh formal tone of voice Mai had spoken to him with.

"Mother, apparently Mai wants to talk with you over the speaker."

"Mai-san?" Luella asked.

 _ **"Mrs Davis? I'll accept your request. I'll be waiting for you at the JSPR office when you and Mr Davis arrive here. I only have one condition."**_

Mai answered her in perfect English which surprised Oliver a little. He had no idea she was even fluent in it.

Luella was excited. **_"Yes, of course. Anything!"_**

 _ **"It's nothing major. Just please don't tell anyone else other than Mr Davis. I have no wish for my abilities to become public knowledge. My time is already full as it is with my work load. I do not wish to be another Masako Hara. Actually, Oliver Davis, that applies to you too. I don't need my other magic tricks broadcasted either. I'll be happy to demonstrate that little trick once and once only. I'll even do it on camera for you as you wish. But it goes no further than you, your parents and Lin-san."**_

 _ **"All right, Mai, I'll agree to that. IF you would stop calling me Davis-san like you have been doing and get back to calling me Naru?"**_

Mai was quiet for a few minutes. **_"I'll think about it. Good day, Mrs Davis. I'll be waiting when you and Mr Davis arrive. Safe journey."_ **Mai hung up then.

 _ **"Noll, how will she know when we'll arrive? Actually, how did she even know what we were discussing right before she phoned?"**_

 _ **"Mai gets visions. She sees past, present and future. At a guess she knew what we were discussing because she saw it. She'll probably know when you and Dad arrive the same way. She knew I was coming back to Japan three weeks before I arrived. I didn't even have my tickets booked then."**_

 _ **"She's an interesting girl, Noll, and looking at her photo, a very pretty one. I'm looking forward to getting to know her."**_

 _ **"I'm sure you are, Mother. Please let me know in advance when you and Dad are scheduled to arrive. That way I can at least send Lin to pick you up. I'm not a precog like Mai, after all."**_

 _ **"Of course, dear. We'll see you soon."**_

 _ **"See you soon Mother."**_

Oliver disconnected the call on his cell phone. Mai just keeps on surprising him these days. Every time he speaks to her he learns something new about her. It peaked his interest in a way that no other female ever had. He vaguely wondered if she was still in love with his brother, remembering her confession years ago at the lake the day they'd finally found his brother's body. He'd responded with "Me or Gene" and she broke down crying that she didn't know. He supposed it was hard to stay in love with a perpetual 17 year old though he did feel a little depressed at the thought that she still might.


	8. Chapter 8 - A Child's Prank

Mai was at a primary school later that day. She'd had an email request from the headmaster to deal with a spirit haunting the playground. The spirit was very fond of playing little pranks. Normally the pranks were harmless but recently a couple of them had lead to small injuries on some of the children who attended the school. The headmaster was worried that the injuries might get progressively worse.

Currently, she was sitting in a swing chatting away to the little boy's spirit who was swinging next to her. To the casual onlooker it looked like Mai was talking to herself which got her some strange looks from the teachers and parents with their children passing by. Mai was used to it though. The boy had just finished telling her his story.

Turned out Kenji was lonely and just wanted someone to talk to. His pranks were his way of trying to get someone to pay attention to him. Having been able to finally make a friend to talk to, Kenji was now happy. He joyfully jumped out of his swing and landed on his feet before running up to Mai, who had halted her own swing, so he could give her a hug before he faded away in a gold light.

The sound of clapping suddenly sounded out behind her followed by Gene's voice. "You've gotten good at that." He said with a grin.

"I've had years of practice." Mai retorted as she restarted her swing.

"I'm sorry we left you behind. I didn't exactly have much of a choice in the matter, but I am sorry."

"I know. Of all of them, you probably had the most acceptable excuse. You are bound to your brother after all. It doesn't make the feeling of abandonment any easier. Nor the fact that I was in desperate need of help at the time. I probably needed your help the most at one stage back then while I was learning to deal with my new powers."

Gene sat down in the swing that Kenji had left and joined Mai in swinging.

"I won't ask you to forgive me, but do you think you might at least remove the block from letting me find you? I only managed to find you today because of the little boy."

"Thank you for not asking for forgiveness. I'm not ready to give it. Not to anyone. But I'll remove the block."

Mai muttered something too quiet for Gene to hear and then suddenly he could see Mai's spiritual presence again. It was so bright he'd wondered how she had even been able to hide it.

"So what happened back then? When you left the other day, the others all started remembering the messages you had left asking for help but they all assumed someone else must have helped you instead. Especially since you never called back."

Mai got off the swing then.

"I died." She said quietly before walking away from Gene's shocked form in a suddenly still swing. He remained behind for quite a while before fading away to find his brother.

...

Oliver was working in his office when the full length mirror he kept on the wall next to his desk to talk to his brother with made a knocking noise.

"What's up Gene?" He said without bothering to look up.

"I just had an interesting conversation with Mai. You might want to pull in Lin to hear this."

"All right. I'll go get him."

Oliver got up from his desk and left his office to call Lin into his office. While Lin couldn't actually hear Gene talking through the mirror, his shiki could and one of them usually relayed Gene's message in times like this.

Both men came back within minutes. Oliver sitting back in his chair behind his desk. Lin sitting in a navy visitor's chair in front of it.

"Lin's here now. So what is this about an interesting conversation with Mai?"

Lin raised an eyebrow at that.

"Yeah, she still had the block up so finding her took a while. I finally succeeded because she was talking to a boy spirit. We got talking and I apologised for leaving her back then. I didn't ask for forgiveness and she didn't give it but she did agree to remove the block."

Gene looked up at Lin then. "I'm not sure if the blockage removal applies to your shiki as well Lin. Or if it just meant me. You'll be able to find out easily enough I suppose?"

"Simply sending one of my shiki to find her will be indication enough."

"Right, so then we started talking about how the others started remembering her messages after she left us the other day and how they had assumed that someone else had helped her. I asked her what had happened that she needed help with..."

"... And? I'm assuming that Mai answered your question?" Oliver asked impatiently.

"She said... She said..." Gene stopped to take a deep breath and then said very fast "Shesaidshedied!"

"WHAT!" Lin and Oliver shouted together.

"She said she died! Died Oliver! She died!"

Oliver and Lin fell back in their chairs then. Both men were shocked and neither of them knew what to do with that knowledge. When Mai said she had needed everyone's help, she had REALLY needed their help.


	9. Chapter 9 - Mai's Magic Trick

Oliver was still thinking about Gene's shocking news two days later. He was waiting for Lin to get back from picking up Oliver's parents when the bell on the main office door chimed. He left his office to find Mai standing in the center of the reception area.

"Good morning Davis-san" Mai said with a bow. "Pardon my intrusion."

"Naru."

"Excuse me?"

"You promised to start calling me Naru again."

"I promised to think about it."

"I see..." Oliver actually looked sad at that.

"I'm not ready yet. It's too soon. Give me time."

All Oliver could do is agree.

The bell above the main office door chimed again as it opened to reveal Lin and a much older couple behind him.

 _ **"Noll! I've missed you, sweetheart!"**_ Cried out Oliver's mother in English.

He found himself engulfed in a hug and breathing in the subtle lavender scent that his mother permanently carried.

 _ **"Mother. Father. This is Mai Taniyama."**_ Oliver finally said when his mother released him.

 _ **"Mr Davis. Mrs Davis. It's nice to meet you."**_ Mai greeted them with a polite bow after shaking their hands.

 _ **"It's very nice to meet you too, Miss Taniyama."**_ Martin Davis responded.

 _ **"Can you really do what Noll said you can? Can you really make Gene solid for a little while?"**_ Luella exclaimed excitedly, clapping her hands together at her chest.

 _ **"I can and I said on the phone that I will. Just a long as it goes no further than the people in this room. I don't want anyone else seeing the tape,**_ _ **Davis-san."**_

Mai looked pointedly at Oliver with her last statement.

 _ **"If you are still planning to record my little magic trick could you please set up the camera? There won't be time to do it once I solidify Gene-san for your family reunion. You'll be busy."**_

Lin and Oliver set up the camera in one corner of the room and made sure a full view of both sides of the room could be seen before turning it on. Mai then turned to Oliver's parents.

 _ **"Mr and Mrs Davis. If you could please stand on the left side of the room next to the arm chair please? Both of you and the chair should be easily visible on the camera, right Lin-san?"**_

Lin confirmed that this was so when Luella and Martin moved to stand on the inside of the chair. There was still plenty of room on the outer side too before the camera frame ended.

 _ **"Davis-san, if you could stand on the right side of the room. Lin-san can you see him clearly on the camera?"**_

 _ **"Yes, Oliver can be seen very clearly, Mai."**_

 _ **"Then please stand next to Oliver."**_

Lin followed Mai's instructions standing on the inside of Oliver facing the camera, while Mai herself settled in the armchair next to Oliver's parents. They looked a little confused at this because they had no idea what Mai's "magic trick" was all about.

 _ **"Please be ready, Davis-san. I'm about to start."**_

 _ **"I'm ready."**_ Oliver responded and Mai closed her eyes and appeared to be asleep.

Projecting her spiritual self into the astral plane, Mai walked over to Oliver. She had no idea if she was visible on camera. She had never attempted to try it on one before.

Oliver jumped when Mai touched his shoulder. He hadn't been able to see her spirit form approach him although he could see her clearly now that she was touching him.

 _ **"Ready?"**_ Mai asked him.

 _ **"Yes."**_

Oliver watched as Mai closed her eyes. The next thing he knew he was standing next to the arm chair by his parents and Mai was opening her eyes again. He had no clue how she had managed to transport him. He had simply been in one side of the room in one second and standing in the other side of the room a second later. It fit in well with what Kira had told him of her own experience just days before.

His parents jumped at Oliver's sudden appearance next to them when he had been standing next to Lin only a second before.

 _ **"What on earth?!"**_ Martin yelped in his shock.

Mai stood up from her chair then and moved to the other side of Oliver's parents where Gene had been standing. She reached out a hand to clasp Gene's shoulder and let him solidify. Their parents jumped again when he also suddenly appeared out of thin air. Mai quickly muttered the spell that would allow him to stay solid before releasing him and stepping away a good distance.

 _ **"You have two hours this time. It's the maximum length of time I can manage. Enjoy your time together. I wish you well.**_ _**I'll be leaving now."**_

Gene was suddenly enveloped in a huge family hug with his twin brother and their parents. Both parents were crying loudly in joy. For them it had been 14 years since they had been able to see and touch and talk directly with their deceased son. Every message he'd given them since his death had to be passed on to them by their still living one.

Lin switched off the camera before moving to escort Mai out. His much longer legs catching up to her quickly.

"Thank you."

"It's no problem, Lin-san. Just keep it quiet. The agreement was that the tape Davis-san asked for isn't seen by any one other than those who were in the room. I ask all my clients to keep my skills confidential. I have no wish to become another Hara-san or have the video spread around the parapsychology society like Davis-san's PK experiment was."

"I understand. I don't blame you for that but I thought you worked on cold cases and the occasional missing persons. Do you have many clients?"

"My official job is investigating cold cases. My skill set makes solving those far easier than others would find it so I have a high success rate. There are also people who approach me privately through an email I set up specifically for that purpose when they have been told that I can help with whatever problem they have. Even without telling them what my skills are, word of mouth still seems to able to suggest me quietly as a person who can help."

"Do you have some free time right now, Mai? I have to admit that I am extremely curious about what you can do and I feel it would be better to give Naru and his family some privacy. I would appreciate it if you'd agree to discuss this with me further."

"Not to worry Lin-san. I already saw that you would ask me that and have cleared my schedule accordingly. Here's the address to my apartment. Judging from the questions my vision told me you want to ask. It would be better to discuss it there without outsiders listening in. I'll see you there in 20 minutes."

Mai held out a piece of paper to Lin and then bowed when he took it. She entered her car that they had been standing at for the last couple of minutes and with a wave, she left.

Lin watched her car drive away before heading back upstairs to inform Oliver that he'd be going out for a couple of hours. That should give the Davis family plenty of time to catch up before Gene faded out of view again.

Oliver looked up at Lin as he walked through the door. He was sitting in the arm chair opposite Gene who sat on the couch wedged between their parents who were still disbelieving that they could touch him.

 _ **"Did Mai leave already? My parents wanted to talk to her.**_ _**They have some questions about her magic trick as she calls it."**_

 _ **"Yes, I've just finished walking her to her car. I think she felt that your time would be better spent enjoying Gene's company as a family. I'm sure she will agree to talk with them at another time before they head back to England. I'm going to head out for a while. Our secretive little bird has just given me permission to have a chat at her apartment and I fully intend to take advantage of that and find out what other secrets she's hiding."**_

Oliver felt a little jealous that Lin was the one that got permission to visit with her first, although he wasn't sure why.

 _ **"I want a full report when you get back."**_

 _ **"No promises."**_

Lin sent a wink Oliver's way and hid a grin at both Oliver's and Gene's stormy faces. **Something interesting happening there if both of the twins are interested in the same woman.** Thought Lin to himself and walked out the door whistling cheerfully.


	10. Chapter 10 - Mai's Story

At exactly 20 minutes from the moment Mai had gotten into her car, Lin was standing on her door step with one hand raised to knock when she opened her door.

"Welcome Lin-san. Please come in."

"Pardon my intrusion."

Lin came in and looked around. The entrance way into Mai's apartment was modest but stylish. He removed his shoes and put on the pair of slippers that Mai had left out for him finding they were a perfect fit.

"Your home is lovely, Mai."

"Thank you Lin-san. It has suited my needs well so far. Are you hungry? I made some lunch for us. No point talking on an empty stomach."

"Yes please. Lunch would be most welcome."

Mai lead the way into her dining room. She had a proper dining table with some comfortable looking chairs to match it. The table was already filled with a vegetarian style meal.

"Please sit while I get the tea. The kettle has only just been boiled."

Mai disappeared into her kitchen only to return minutes later with a tray holding a tea pot and two cups.

"Thank you for the food." Lin and Mai said together and they began to eat.

It was quiet for the first half of the meal. Mai's cooking was quite delicious and full of flavour. Lin found himself impressed. Mai hadn't cooked much 10 years ago that he could recall.

He studied Mai as they ate, taking note of the changes in her face from what he remembered. She had lost the puppy look. Her face was thinner, her cheek bones more defined. She wore little make up. Just enough to make her caramel eyes stand out without being over the top like Ayoko usually was. Her hair was long and silky looking, pinned back in a neat ponytail. Her body, what he could see of it, was slim and well built. It looked firm and fit. Her chest wasn't huge but it wasn't small either. She was well proportioned.

 **Mature.** Lin suddenly thought. **She's grown up. No longer a girl but a woman fully in her own right.** It stirred some interest in him despite the age difference. Well, she wasn't a child anymore so that wasn't a problem. Mai interrupted his inner musings just then.

"Shall we get on with it then? Ask your first question."

Lin took a few minutes to think about what he wanted to ask first. He was curious about her shiki, but he also wanted to know what she meant when she told Gene that she had died. He decided to go with the less traumatic question first.

"When you pulled your disappearing act at the case the day, one of my shiki mentioned that they had caught a glimpse of a shiki of your own helping you?"

"Yes, I have shiki of my own. It became a necessity to contain the level of power my body holds. The shiki drain it for me so it doesn't get to dangerous levels. Although if I lose control of my emotions, even my shiki can't help me. I could probably do with more but it takes a certain type of shiki to do what I need it to do rather than in the normal way like you do."

"They help to drain your power rather than boost it?" Lin was shocked.

"So the shiki that mine saw the other day wasn't aiding in your disappearing act but in controlling your emotions."

"Correct. Bear in mind that it isn't dangerous for myself, if I lose control, but for everyone and everything around me instead."

"What kind of radius are we talking here?"

"Enough to level two or three blocks in each direction."

"How many shiki do you have?"

"6. 3 spirits. 3 demons. I could probably do a with a couple more of each to help with the power build up but the kind I need are not so easy to find."

"How long have you needed to use them?"

"About 9 years now."

"Can I meet them?"

"Suit yourself. They're dying to meet yours anyway."

Mai whistled and her 6 shiki appeared surround her in protective stances. Lin did the same and his 5 shiki appeared excitedly around him.

Lin went first pointing to each one.

"Rin, Wei, Ming, Li and Chen."

Mai did the same with her own.

"Aki, Aoi, Emi, Fuwa, Kiko and Megu. You may socialise."

Mai's shiki relaxed then as if it was all they were waiting for and drifted over to chatter with Lin's shiki.

"Apart from helping to drain your power, how else do they differ from mine."

"I didn't capture them, so much as they volunteered for the job. For a long time, they were the only ones that helped me stay sane after my powers exploded."

"What do you mean by your powers exploded?"

"Exactly that. I went through something particularly traumatic and in reaction my powers exploded and in unexpected directions at that."

"How long did it take you to learn to control it?"

"I had to take 6 months leave from my tertiary education to do it. I had to find a teacher to do it. Noromi was a dear old lady and helped me learn control of my emotions as well as find and bind my shiki. She taught them how to help me. I was in control by the time my leave was completed and I had to go back. She died a couple of years ago. I still miss her. "

"Gene said you told him that you died. Is that the traumatic event that you talked about just before?"

Mai snorted at that. "No, I died as a result of the traumatic event. My death itself was a blessing. Pity, the bastard resuscitated me. But I guess he wasn't finished playing with me at the time."

Lin froze at that. **Her death was a blessing as a result of her traumatic event? The bastard hadn't finished playing with her? What the hell?!**

"Start from the beginning, please? What was the traumatic event then, if it wasn't your death itself?"

"More tea first."

Mai got up then and cleared the table of the lunch dishes, took them into the kitchen and came back to collect the tea pot. She left the cups where they were. They would only continue to use them.

She came back with a freshly made pot a few minutes later and picked up the cups.

"Shall we take this into the living room? I'm in the mood to curl up in my favourite chair."

Lin got the feeling it was more to comfort her in the time of a stressful topic and also as a delay tactic. He watched as she curled up into a well padded pale blue armchair with white trim. It was loaded with matching pillows that she rearranged around her to give her the most comfort and support. She waved a hand towards the couch and the other chair.

"Take a seat. Make yourself comfortable."

Lin chose to sit on the end of the couch closest to her. If he stretched out his legs in her direction he could just about touch her chair. If her legs had been on the ground rather than curled up in the chair he was definitely be touching them. He shifted slightly to ease the sudden tightness in his pants. Now seriously wasn't the time for that.

"Are you sure you want to hear it?"

"Yes."

"It started 2 months before you left for England. I'd check the mailbox and there'd be a note from a secret admirer inside with a flower. At first it was only once in a while but then it increased. Then chocolates were added to it."

 **It started before we left?! And she didn't tell us?** That thought frightened Lin as he realised she had been dealing with a stalker.

"After you left for England, I started finding the gifts inside my apartment. Things would be moved. The clothes in my drawers would be out of place. My photos disturbed. The one I have of Gene-san and Davis-san would often be lying flat, glass down. It went missing later. I found it submerged in the toilet tank.

I reported it to the police but they couldn't find any signs of a break in. I wondered if it was a ghost but I couldn't feel any around me. That was about the point then I called Hara-san and the others. But no one responded to my request for help. I almost wish it had been a ghost. At lease I could of exorcised him.

The next following months was just down right scary. I often felt like I was being watched. It didn't matter if I was inside my apartment or not. I could be outside, inside, in my bathroom, bedroom, garden. I couldn't see anyone but I could feel them there somewhere. I discovered cameras in my located in various places including my bathroom and bedroom. The police could do nothing. They pulled apart my apartment, removed all the cameras and the cameras would be back within a day.

The phone calls started then. Just heavy breathing. He never actually said anything.

I moved apartments. Changed my phone number. Nothing worked. Then 10 months into it I woke up in my bed with him standing over me. He covered my mouth with a smelly tag before I could yell for help and that knocked me unconscious. I woke up with my hands restrained together to a pipe in a concrete basement.

At first he just talked. A lot. He fed me occasionally and gave me water. Eventually talking wasn't enough and he began to touch. It was in the second week that he started to do more than touch. He'd fully forced himself on my by the beginning of the 3rd week. Beatings joined the rape in the 5th week if I hadn't satisfied him enough. It was during one of the beatings that I died. He'd hit my head against the floor too hard. Pity, he managed to resuscitate me although it took him 40 minutes to do so."

By this time Mai was hugging one of the pillows stuffed in her chair and her shiki were all standing around her, touching her. They glowed softly with a rosy tinge while touching her. They were trying to keep her from losing control of her emotions, Lin realised. His own shiki were standing around them, curiously observing what they were doing. Mai continued with her tale.

"Around the 7th week of my kidnapping I lost it. I screamed. The next thing I knew he had exploded and the building had collapsed around me. Thankfully it was an abandoned building and no one else was in it but us. I was found by a fire brigade crew who rushed me to hospital."

Mai looked up and around her chair startled and then smiled softly in thanks. Lin's shiki had finished observing and moved to copy hers of their own accord, in touching her to absorb her emotions. They were also glowing softly. A stillness filled the air and Lin realised that the furniture had been shaking. Mai's emotions had been too much for her own shiki to handle at that point.

"The newspaper article that wrote about the event claimed it was land subsidence. There was no mention of myself or my abduction.

Strangely enough by the time I had arrived at the hospital my wounds had already started healing on their own. But things exploded anytime I got emotional. Or they flew around the room.

Then the ghosts started appearing. Everywhere I went I could see the dead. It didn't take long before they realised I could see them and I got bombarded. It was quite dangerous for me then. I was often covered in cuts and bruises as they tried to convey what had happened to them. I ended up in hospital a number of times from the more serious ones. Although I healed up fairly quickly either way. It was only when I got my shiki that they stopped. My shiki keep most of them away so that I only have to deal with the ones I need to for my clients. The wards around my apartment and in my office make them a ghost free zone. Only those I allow inside may come in.

The visions began not long after the ghosts started bombarding me. I'd be writing an essay and see someone's death even though the person in question was alive and well in the room with me. I'd be washing dishes and get a vision of what you all were up to at that point in time. Some of those weren't pleasant and not because you were on a case or something. You and Mori-san have some very interesting bed partners. Davis-san could do better with some of his. "

Lin blushed at that. It wasn't a comfortable thought that Mai had seen those encounters although he tended to agree with her assessment of Oliver's choices. He spoke then to cover his embarrassment.

"I was a little confused when you said your powers exploded. But looking at your room just now as a result of your emotions, would I be correct in assuming you also have PK-ST?"

"Yes. PK-MT also. No PK-LT though. Don't tell Davis-san but I can throw a block twice the weight of the one he threw in his video experiment. I know that from experience. I've tried it."

Lin shivered then. He definitely wasn't telling Oliver about her PK abilities just now. He didn't even want to think of the competitiveness that would bring.

"How did that particular experience come about?"

"The corner of a 30 story business building at a demolition site had broken off and started falling fast. A construction worker was standing underneath it and had no time to move. I reacted before I could think by grabbing the block with my PK and throwing it back into the building and away from the worker."

"Wait! Wait! That was caught on video! They didn't show who did it but the block falling and then suddenly slamming sideways back into the building made the news all over the world trying to guess who had done it. Oliver was jealous. That block was easily three times the weight of his. That was you?"

"That was me. And you wouldn't have seen me on camera. I was sitting at a table in the window of a cafe across the road from the demolition site. The camera person was probably standing in the street itself in front of me."

Mai stood up then. Her shiki, and his, had long ago released her since her emotions, and by extension her powers, were back under control.

"Anyway, Gene-san will have faded again by now and the Davis family will be waiting on you to review my tape I think. Please don't tell them more about my life than is necessary. I'm not ashamed of myself or my experiences, mind you, but I am a private person."

Mai walked Lin to the entrance way where he swapped his slippers for his shoes.

"I understand. Thank you for talking with me, and Mai? I really am sorry that we weren't here to help you when you needed us the most."

Lin left then and Mai closed the door softly behind them. Lin was still thinking hard when he walked through the door of SPR.


	11. Chapter 11 - Family Reunion

After Lin left, the Davis family were quiet for a little while. Martin and Luella could not quite get over being able to touch Gene again even if it was only for a short while.

 _ **"Tell us about Miss Taniyama. Gene, Oliver mentioned that you were her spirit guide before you came back to England 10 years ago? How did that come about?"**_ Luella asked.

Gene had to think back a little then.

 _ **"I'm not really sure. At first all I remember is darkness. I think I was sleeping for the most part. There were short periods of time that I woke up once Noll arrived in Japan. Most of the time there was nothing interesting and then there was this one time that I woke up and Noll was investigating an old school building. There was nothing paranormal happening there but for the first time ever there was a girl working with him instead of Lin."**_

 _ **"I had found Mai with some of her friends telling ghost stories in one of the classrooms. Scared the life out of them when I spoke. The others fawned over me like the stupid girls used to do back when we were kids. Not Mai though. She glared at me like she knew I wasn't being honest. The next morning Lin caught her checking out one of our cameras in the old school building. He must of startled her because she knocked the shelving behind her causing it to fall. He managed to push her out of the way but sprained his ankle and knocked his head in the process. I took him to the hospital and then came to get her later that day and conned her into being my assistant since I no longer had Lin. Told her she had to work to pay off the camera. She knew nothing about the paranormal but showed good instincts so I ended up offering her an actual part time job."**_ Oliver explained.

 _ **"Right, and during your little temper tantrum after that Kuroda girl caused a poltergeist and you felt angry about not picking it up before, she ended up under another shelving unit that fell on her thanks to the poltergeist activity. I realised something interesting about her then while she was unconscious. I could connect to her on a psychic level. She mistook me for Noll when I was testing the connection and I didn't bother correcting her. Paid for that later when she found out too."**_

Gene rubbed the back of his head, where he could still vaguely remember the pain of her hitting him at the time, and gave a wry smile.

 _ **"You two were very much alike back then. I think that's why she usually managed to get under my skin with her temper. She reminded me so much of you that I reacted to her accordingly."**_

 _ **"Oh, yes, because I usually needed you to fall down a sewer with me or protect me from a falling roof. Whatever you say, Noll. I think you liked her. Though you just about broke her heart when she confessed to liking you."**_

Gene just had to tease his brother.

 _ **"Couldn't be helped. She had fallen for the guy who was literally in her dreams and not me."**_ Oliver retorted.

 _ **"Actually, I think she had fallen in love with both of us. I might have been her spirit guide but it was usually you she had playing the romantic roles in her visions and before you deny it, the others often took relevant roles in them too as a way to help her understand the emotions and reasoning behind the visions themselves."**_

Oliver looked thoughtful at that.

After that the conversation drifted to other topics as Martin and Luella tried to make the most of the short amount of time they had with Gene. Before long, their time was up and they were having a last hug together as Gene faded from view.

Martin had questions for Oliver then about that little experiment they had conducted when they had first arrived. Oliver began by explaining their last case to his parents and how Mai had solved it almost immediately on her arrival. He was just putting in the video with his interrogation of Kira when Lin walked through the door again.

 _ **"Later. What are we watching?"**_

Lin said in response to Oliver's raised eyebrow.

 _ **"Kira's interrogation from our last case. Father wanted an explanation of our experiment earlier and this is the easiest way."**_

 _ **"Ah. Then by all means."**_

It was quiet while the video played but Martin and Luella stiffened when Kira described Mai's little magic trick.

 _ **"Had she been able to do this before?"**_ Luella asked.

 _ **"We had a case not long before we found Gene's body where Mai did something similar. Miss Hara had been taken by a spirit turned demon. Mai astral projected herself to try to find her. When Mai did find her, she passed a key to Miss Hara as a promise that they would come save her. Miss Hara gave it back to Mai once we had gotten out safely. Kira was the first time I've heard of Mai moving a person through the astral plane though and I wanted to see if she could do it on camera."**_

Oliver changed the tapes then, putting on the one they had recorded earlier that day. They watched as everyone got into the positions they had been directed to and Mai closing her eyes.

There was a faint shimmer moving across the room on the screen that Oliver assumed was Mai's spirit form coming to him. She appeared a little more solid when she touched his shoulder. Then both blinked out of view on that side of the room and Oliver reappeared on the other side by the chair. They continued to watch as Mai got up and moved to the other side of Luella and Martin. They saw her hand lift up and suddenly Gene was there. There had been no sign of him standing there beforehand.

 _ **"That was amazing. It's a shame she won't let us share this video with anyone else. What did it feel like?"**_

Martin was curious. He was tempted to ask Miss Taniyama to repeat the experiment with him just to find out what it was like.

 _ **"The trip itself didn't really feel like anything. I was in one place one moment and in another the next. Mai's touch was the most curious for me. I could feel her but couldn't, if that makes sense. I couldn't even see her until she touched my shoulder."**_

 _ **"So how does one go from transferring a key to transferring an actual person?"**_ Luella asked.

 _ **"Lin?**_ _**What did Mai tell you?"**_ Oliver looked at Lin.

 _ **"I'm not going to tell you everything but the general gist of it was that her powers exploded 9 nears ago after a traumatic event."**_

 _ **"Her death?"**_ Oliver asked.

 _ **"Wait, Miss Taniyama died?!"**_ Martin interrupted.

Lin answered him. _**"Yes, she died as a result of the traumatic event. Her death wasn't the traumatic event in question though. She called it a blessing instead."**_

 _ **"What kind of event did she go through where death could be considered a blessing?"**_ Oliver asked. Lin hesitated then.

 _ **"Apparently she was being stalked. It started 2 months before we left Japan. It got to the point where she was abducted. She was held captive for almost 2 months before she finally lost it and her powers exploded, killing her stalker and collapsing the building they were in. Her death took place at the beginning of the second month. He resuscitated her after 40 minutes."**_

 _ **"40 minutes before resuscitation? Mai should be brain dead."**_

 _ **"I think her powers saved her. She mentioned that she now heals at a remarkably fast rate since then."**_

 _ **"Did she say anything else?"**_

 _ **"I got to meet her shiki. She has 6 of them."**_

Lin was grinning when he said that.

 _ **"And I'm not actually meant to tell you this, but you remember that video a while back where a piece of building was falling and then suddenly slammed sideways into the building it came from, saving the people standing underneath it? That was Mai."**_

You could have heard a pin drop in the silence that followed Lin's statement as he got up to make everyone a cup of tea. They were definitely in need of one then.


	12. Chapter 12 - The First Shiki

Mai rubbed at her eyes and yawned. She was tired. She hadn't been sleeping well since telling Lin her story four days ago. The same dream had been playing over and over. Well, she called it a dream but it was more like a memory. The one of her final rape and the abuse she had suffered before she blew up her tormentor and collapsed the building.

It had been extremely brutal. The rape itself had lasted over an hour. The physical abuse even longer. It was like he just couldn't be satisfied no matter what he did to her. She had been bleeding profusely by the end of it. There had been internal damage. If her body hadn't magically healed itself she doubted she would have been able to have children. If it had been anyone else, they definitely wouldn't have been able to.

Not that the child she had managed to carry to term had survived. The baby girl had been stillborn. She had passed away just two days before her due date. Complications of the heart according to the autopsy report. Probably a good thing considering the child had been conceived in that last rape that she had dreaming about. Her pregnancy had been problematic on it's own. Even without having to deal with learning to control her powers.

She hadn't told Lin this part of her story of course. Lin had been shocked enough with what he had heard. Mai doubted he would have been able to handle any more at the time.

Aki, her very first shiki that Noromi had helped Mai to contract with, was actually her own daughter; and right at that moment, Mai was kneeling at her gravestone. Today was Aki's birthday and Mai was feeling a little nostalgic about it.

Giving the yellow tulips in the white vase in front of Aki's gravestone one last adjustment, Mai stood up. Yellow tulips were Aki's current favourite flowers. It changed each year.

"Happy birthday, baby girl." Mai whispered before walking away.

"Mai? Is that you?"

Mai turned around to find John Brown behind her. From the looks of the group of people in the distance, he had just finished a funeral.

"Brown-san. How are you? Was it a pleasant funeral?"

"I'm well, Mai. I believe the family felt comforted at laying their loved one to rest. Were you visiting your parents?"

John knew Mai was an orphan. She had been even before he'd first known her, though she hadn't told them for several months after their initial meeting. He walked beside her as they left the cemetery.

"My daughter."

That shocked John. He didn't even know she'd had a child, let alone that one that had passed away. Though he supposed that he probably knew nothing about her life from the last 10 years.

"I'm sorry to hear that. I hope her passing wasn't too painful?"

"It wasn't. She was stillborn. The coroner ruled her cause of death as heart complications."

"And the father?"

"He died shortly after I fell pregnant."

"I'm sorry. That must have been a difficult period to lose two loved ones so close together."

"It was a difficult time for me but not for the reasons you're thinking of."

"Do you wish to talk about it?"

"Not particularly. I had enough of remembering that horrific nightmare when talking it out with Lin-san a few days ago."

"I see." John was quiet for a few minutes, seemingly thinking something over.

"Mai, I'd like to offer my apologies for not being there when you needed help and not following up on it like I should have. I shouldn't have assumed that one of the others had helped you like I did. Like we all had apparently. I am sorry."

"I'll accept your apology, Brown-san. But the words are rather meaningless to me at this stage. Kind of along the lines of too little, too late. Although to be perfectly honest, I don't know if anything would have turned out any differently even if one of you had responded to my help. We dealt with the paranormal after all and my nightmare was caused by a man. Not a ghost. Nothing can be done about it now, at any rate. Good day Brown-san."

Mai left John with a slight bow and headed for her car. She knew that there were many more of these "apologies" to come yet and she wasn't looking forward to any of them. They were meaningless regardless of how heartfelt they were being given. Words being spoken now doesn't change a damned thing from her past.


	13. Chapter 13 - SPR Has A Talk

Several days later, the irregulars part of SPR's team sat around the coffee table chatting away like they used to do. They had just gotten back from a successful case. Oliver was working in his office. Lin had driven Oliver's parents to the airport for their return flight to England.

Despite many requests to see Mai by Oliver's parents, they had only managed to meet with her that one time on the day of their arrival. Luella, in particular was disappointed. She wanted to get to know the girl that both her sons had felt comfortable enough to kiss at the same time. Mai had been polite but persistent in her denial of the requests to meet. Her only reason that she would give is that she was not a lab rat. Luella could only assume she was referring to Oliver's and Martin's enthusiasm in wanting to test her powers further.

Even Lin had been denied when he asked Mai for a meet up at a cafe. Mai wasn't too happy about him spilling the one power she had specifically asked him not to.

And as for the case that the team had just solved? Mai merely told them they were perfectly capable of solving a simple haunting without her and refused to come.

It didn't take long for Oliver to come out of his office and look with disdain at the others chatting away, tea and coffee cups in hand.

"You are aware that there is a perfectly usable cafe just below the office. Must you treat my office as one?"

"Naru! Won't you join us? Apparently John ran into Mai the other day. He was just telling us about it." Masako called out to Oliver.

"Give me a minute to get my own tea. Lin should be back in a few minutes. We've had our own run ins with Mai to add."

Oliver went into the kitchen then and made a cup of black tea for himself and a green one for Lin. He was just bringing them out when Lin walked through the doors. Oliver passed Lin his cup and sat down in his usual chair. Lin joined them in his own chair.

"Well John, tell us about this run in with Mai then." Oliver waved a hand at John to start talking, while drinking his tea.

"I met her at the cemetery of all places. I had just finished a funeral for one of my parishioners and noticed a woman kneeling at a gravestone. I realised it was Mai as I got closer to her although she had already gotten up to leave by then."

"She was visiting her parents?" Ayoko asked.

"That's what I thought too. But when I asked her, she said it was her daughter."

There was shocked silence for a minute before a collective "Daughter?!" was yelled out.

"Yes, apparently the baby was still born and when I asked about the father, Mai said he'd died just after they had conceived the baby. However when I offered my condolences over what I said must have been a difficult time having lost two loved ones so close together, Mai said it was difficult but not for the reasons I was imagining."

"Ah!" Oliver and Lin said together. They looked at each other and Oliver nodded to Lin.

"Tell them." Oliver said.

Everyone turned to Lin then.

"From what Mai told me when I visited with her at her apartment, the trouble she mentioned that she had needed our help with was a stalker who had later abducted Mai. I imagine that he was probably the father of her baby."

"Mai was stalked?" That was Yasuhara.

"She had been abducted?" That was Takagawa.

"Mai had been raped?!" Ayoko cried in a horrified tone.

Ayoko's statement made the others pause as they suddenly made the connection to just how Mai's baby had been conceived.

"There's more to the story of course." Oliver added.

"Yes, Mai told me that the stalking began two months before we left for England. The stalker abducted her after 10 months of harassment and held her captive for nearly two months in itself. She was raped and beaten repeatedly in that time. She actually died as a result of one of those beatings but he resuscitated her after 40 minutes. I imagine it took him that long to realise she'd even died in the first place. She killed him a few weeks later when her powers exploded after she lost it. At a guess he had probably been particularly abusive the day that happened."

"Wouldn't she be brain dead after 40 minutes?" Masako asked.

"She most certainly would have been." Ayoko answered. "That's a medical fact. So why isn't Mai brain dead?"

"One of her new powers since the explosion appears to be fast healing. She probably was brain dead in the time between her resuscitation and her powers exploding." Oliver answered.

"That clears up something else she had mentioned when I met her, that I didn't understand at the time." John mused. "She had said that it probably wouldn't have changed a thing if one of us HAD responded to her messages of help because her nightmare was caused by a man and not a ghost."

"That's a lot of trauma for one person to go through without the people she called her family supporting her." Lin commented in a light tone.

It was a very quiet group of people who left the SPR offices a little later that day.


	14. Chapter 14 - Getting Away

Mai had gone into hiding. Ever since her vision of the SPR team talking about her history, her work phone had been ringing non-stop. It had gotten to the point that she had resorted to instructing the police reception desk to not transfer any calls to her unless they were internal. She told them to take a message instead. Not that she phoned anyone back other than her clients or the leads that she was chasing for a cold case. She was glad she had never given any of them her cell phone number or email address.

As it was, Mai aimed for staying out of her office as much as possible since the visitors just kept coming. She was extremely grateful that her visions gave her a heads up on when to get out of sight before they could catch her.

She had also taken to staying in a motel. Lin had filed her apartment address in her folder and the others had gotten hold of it and kept trying to stop by. It was cowardly to hide, but she wasn't ready to see them all. Especially when they grouped in mass like her visions had been showing.

It was bad enough dealing with Gene, who kept trying to pull her into the astral plane at night, or Lin, whose shiki had kept coming to check on her. She'd had to put a block spell on both to prevent them from telling Lin or Oliver where she was. That was the only thing she blocked, her location. There was no point blocking anything else.

The constant barrage was starting to anger her. Mai wasn't interested in the apologies they were trying to offer her. As she had told John, the words were meaningless to her. Her shiki were hard pressed to keep her emotions in check at the moment and that was the main reason she still allowed Lin's shiki to visit her. They had taken to helping her in controlling her emotions during their visits.

Mai was at the point where she was about to seek out some more demon volunteers to contract into shiki. She was currently in her motel room right then and had just bought flight tickets for that night from Tokyo to Nagasaki. Her target destination was Mount Inasa. There was a special place hidden there that Mai found particularly helpful in finding the type of demons she needed to be made into shiki. Not to mention getting away from Tokyo would give her a break from everyone who was trying to contact her.

Phoning her boss at the precinct, Mai let him know that she'd be away for a few days on personal business. He happy to let her, knowing she often took such trips to help her special clients. They had a private agreement for those situations. As soon as she got off the phone, Mai began to pack her bag and left for the airport.

The 2.5 hour flight to Nagasaki peaceful. The drive to Mount Inasa even quieter. The distance was too far for Gene or Lin's shiki to follow. As soon as Mai had reached the top of the mountain she headed out of the publicly used area deep into the wilderness. She knew where she was going. She had been there several times before. Hidden deep in the wilderness was a small alter that Mai had used in the past to summon demons and contract them as shiki.

Mai quickly set up and double checked the perimeters for the summoning. It wouldn't do for the demons to get loose and attack her before they'd made a shiki contract. The spell to summon was not long but it was complicated and she had to do it several times before she'd contracted a total of 4 new demon shiki.

Mai only ever took volunteers and not all the demons who had been summoned were willing. She had sent far more demons back than she had contracted with. Those she did contract with quickly learnt from the others how to achieve their main purpose for the contract. Mai felt a lot calmer and in more control by the time the 4th new shiki had been added.

Cleaning up the area around her, Mai decided it was time to head to a motel and her some sleep. It was reaching daybreak by the time she got out of the wilderness and back into the publicly used areas. Mai was beyond tired by the time she reached the motel she preferred when visiting Nagasaki. She barely remembered to lock the door to her room and drop her things on the floor before she fell on the bed and went to sleep. For once her sleep was dreamless.

Mai ended up sleeping until the following morning. It was the most peaceful sleep she'd had since learning that Oliver and Lin were coming back to Japan. She got up and had a shower before heading out for breakfast. After eating, Mai opted to stay in Nagasaki for another day doing touristy things. She was happy and tired by the time night fell again and she headed back to her motel room.

She had another peaceful night and a filling breakfast before she headed back to the airport and got on a flight back to Tokyo.


	15. Chapter 15 - Ending The Harassment

It was during Mai's flight back to Tokyo that she had a vision of the next lot of SPR harassment. She decided she'd had enough. If it continued as it was, it was going to start to interfere with her work. She was not willing to let it get that far. When the plane was close enough to do so, Mai sent Aki with a message for Lin.

Lin was in his office. He was worried. His shiki had not been able to find Mai for the last couple of days. He wondered if she had blocked him again or if something had happened. The last few reports from his shiki before Mai had alerted him to her dangerous emotional levels. He was scared that she'd have another power explosion as a result. So he was very surprised when one of her shiki made its presence known to him.

"Hello, my name is Aki. Mama has a message for you."

 **Mama?** That was an interesting way for Mai's shiki to call her.

"Hello Aki. What is your mama's message?"

"Please arrange for everyone to be at the SPR office at 3 pm today. We need to talk."

"I'll make sure of it."

"Thank you very much."

"If it's not too much trouble, may I ask where Mai has been these last few days?"

Aki was quiet for a moment as she communicated telepathically with Mai.

"Mama has been in Nagasaki contracting new shiki to help control her powers. She contracted 4 new ones in total. She will introduce them to you at a later date."

"My shiki and I look forward to it."

"Very well. Mama will see you all this afternoon."

Aki left to return to her mother and Lin contacted everyone with Mai's request.

...

At just before 3 pm the SPR office was once again fulled with the irregulars as well as Lin and Oliver. This time they were waiting, rather noisily, for Mai to arrive. They were all curious as to what she had to say when she had been avoiding them for over a week. All the irregulars accept John were all angry that she had done so. They just wanted to apologise and get things back to how it used to be. So why was she making it so hard for them to do so. Of all the irregulars, only John, along with Lin and Oliver, had thought that she may have been avoiding their apologies because they meant nothing to her.

At precisely 3 pm, Mai entered the SPR office and stood quietly and expressionless as pandemonium began. Only John, Lin and Oliver remained seated and quiet. The others had all jumped up and converged on Mai ready to push their apologies down her throat. Mai waited for 5 minutes for them to shut up and then made the decision to do it for them. She muttered a spell under her breath and suddenly everyone who had been talking at her was blessedly silent. Every time they opened their mouths to speak, nothing came out.

"Everyone sit down. I will give you a chance to speak when I'm ready but right now it's my time. But first, I need a drink."

Mai sat down in a vacant chair and waited for everyone else to sit. They looked at her expectantly as if they expected her to make the tea like she used to do. Instead she merely waited in her chair. Lin had just started thinking about going to make it himself when he looked up to see a cup of green tea next to his hand.

"Oh! Thank you Mai."

Every one looked at Lin then, realising that he now held a cup of tea even though no one had gotten up to make one. Then they realised that their own favourite teas were sitting in a cup next to their hands waiting. A few mouths dropped in shock as they all took the waiting cups. Oliver and John murmured their thanks out loud. The other could only mouth it. Mai had already started drinking hers.

"Now. I'm only going to say this once. When I'm finished I will release your voices and allow to you say your own piece, one at a time. Obviously Lin-san, Davis-san and Brown-san can still speak. That is because they did not bombard me the second I walked through the door."

The others nodded their agreement. It wasn't like they had much choice in the matter.

"This has to stop. I'm sick of having to use my visions to avoid you all. It's come to the point of harassment and you're interfering with my work. I've had enough. The lot of you are no better than the stalker you've been told about and you are lucky I don't serve you with harassment charges. I do work as a detective you know.

Yes, I'm aware that you all had a gossiping session about me. I'm know that you all now know of my history involving the first two years of my life without you. Please take note that you still know nothing about the me as the me that I am now. You left me for 10 years. You only know about two. That does not mean you know me at all.

I'm not interested in your apologies and I won't accept them I'm willing to discuss your abandonment of me. I'm not willing to hear your excuses and attempts to say sorry. I already know them. I've seen everything that you all have been up to over the last 10 years in my visions.

Your apologies are meaningless to me. It doesn't matter how heartfelt you are when you make them. They don't change a thing in regards to all the shit I had to live through while you were off living your happy lives.

I know you were all angry about me avoiding you. But I don't owe any of you a damned thing, not even the time of day. You spent 3 years being thought of as my family and 10 years being just people that I used to know. The relationship we used to have is now gone. If you want to reconnect then you will have to start at the beginning again. I am not that Mai anymore."

The others looked at her in shock and embarrassment. Hearing that she felt that they were acting no better than the stalker she'd already had to deal with hit them hard. As did the knowledge that had been completely ignoring her feelings by trying to push their own onto her. Stupidly a couple of them had opened their mouths to apologise for their behavior before realising they still didn't have voices.

"I'm going to release your voices one at a time. Remember, this is not going to make us friends again. It is merely clearing the air. What happens after that has yet to be decided. Hara-san?"

Mai released Masako's voice. She figured since Masako and her had never really been close that hers would be the fastest to get through.

"Thank you Taniyama-san. I know we were never close. I regret that deeply now. I understand that words mean nothing to you at this point but I do hope that we could work on being friends in the future."

"We can only try. At least we do not have a rivalry over the same man anymore to complicate that attempt. Matsuzaki-san?"

"Oh Mai. I am horrified that I left you to such a fate by not responding to you when you asked for help. I feel like I failed you. Could we please try again? I'd like to get to know you as you are now."

"Don't expect me to think of you as a mother figure any more. If this is going to work you will have to accept me as an equal. Takagawa-san?"

"I'm really sorry Mai. I know. I know." Monk said in response to Mai's pointed look. "You don't have to accept it but I had to say it. I really feel like I failed you back then and I also regret not responding to your messages when I should have."

Mai sighed. "Very well. Like Matsuzaki-san, don't expect me think of you as a father figure again either. It will be as an equal or as nothing. I am not someone who requires protection from everything anymore. Yasuhara-san?"

Yasu was the last to have his voice released.

"Like the others I deeply regret not being there when you needed it. I'm saddened by the loss of the Mai you once were and the things you had to live through to lose it. I look forward to learning who the new Mai is."

"Thank you Yasuhara-san. Is there anything else that you want to discuss or am I free to get on with my day now?"

"May we ask you some questions, Mai? I'm still curious on a few things." Oliver asked.

"I knew you were going to say that, Davis-san. Very well, what do you want to know?"

"What is the full extent of your PK? I understand that you were the one whose powers were recorded in that video a few years back but I assume you didn't end up in hospital over it like I did?"

"You'd be correct. Did Lin-san explain to you the purpose of my shiki?"

Oliver nodded but the others looked confused.

"Then please understand that I have enough power to level several blocks without requiring hospitalisation. Actually I think they may have grown again since I've just had to contract more shiki to cope with my needs. The role my shiki take is different to Lin-san. They absorb my powers and help me to keep control of my emotions. When you all found me I had a total of 6 shiki. I now have 10. I was alerted to my need for more when Lin-san's shiki started joining my own to help with the excess emotions you all caused with your harassment."

"Speaking of your Shiki, Mai, the one you sent to me earlier, Aki, was it? I'm curious, she called you Mama?" Lin asked then.

"Yes, Aki is my daughter. She was the first to volunteer as my shiki. The other two spirits, Aoi and Mogi, are my grandmothers, both maternal and paternal respectively. The rest are all demons."

"How did you get into police work? Particularly into cold cases?" Yasuhara asked.

"My visions made it easier to investigate a crime. I tried all the departments over time but found the cold cases were easier on me emotionally. Although I often help in missing persons and the occasional serials. Although they tend to come through as a client request in my email than in my actual work load."

"What kind of client work do you deal with?" Masako asked.

"Apart from missing persons or the occasional serial. Most of my requests deal with the paranormal. Usually a simple haunting that requires a purification. Sometimes something more difficult where only a exorcism will help. My visions tend to help with all of them. Sometimes I have to travel out of Japan for them."

Oliver had another question to ask then. Something he had been curious about for a while.

"Mai, when we were trying to find information on you while we were back in England and again once we got here, we found nothing. There were no paperwork or records or any kind of history out there on you. How did that come about?"

"One of the first clients I dealt with privately after I got control of my new powers was the Prime Minister. Once I had solved his problem I made a request that my history and anything I do in the future be blacked out."

"Hey, what was the video you mentioned Naru seeing, about?" Monk asked.

Oliver answered that one for Mai.

"A few years back there was a video that made the news and did the rounds in the parapsychology society. A very large corner of a high rise building had broken off and began falling. There were construction workers below it and everyone was expecting a tragedy. Instead half way down the block suddenly diverted sideways back into the building itself. No one knew who it was that did it although the parapsychology society were rife with theories."

Everyone's mouths dropped then other than Lin's who already knew since he was the one to tell Oliver.

"No way! I remember that video! That was you Mai?!" Monk exclaimed.

Mai just nodded.

"Well damn!"

"Mai, would it be OK if I showed them the one we recorded when my parents were here? I think it would be beneficial."

Mai glared at Oliver then. "I suppose so. But I had better not find out anyone else has seen it."

Everyone but Mai and Lin crowded around Oliver's laptop to watch. She hadn't seen the video itself but didn't really have much interest in it. Watching their expressions was of more interest than the video itself.

Nobody really had any questions to ask after that. Or at least nothing they could think of there and then. So Mai said her goodbyes and left to go home for the first time in well over a week.


	16. Chapter 16 - The Return of An Annoyance

16 – The Return of an Annoyance

Things were quiet for a few days for Mai. She cleared one or two cold cases. Helped a simple haunting request and found a missing child for Takiana. He was still alive thank goodness, but he was suffering from hypothermia after 36 hours lost in the bush during wet weather. He'd gone there with his school camp and gotten lost during some sort of orienteering activity. It wasn't going to take long for things to pick up however and since she had gotten a vision of an uncomfortable Oliver dealing with a clingy and flirty young lady who kept getting in the way of the investigation, Mai supposed she was being hinted that she was needed in some other capacity to her usual talents. Just how, she wasn't sure yet, but she figured she had better phone Oliver to give him a heads up.

"Kazuya Shibuya speaking."

"Davis-san, I've been inundated with visions of some case you're about to be given. Ironically, my visions aren't of the case itself but of a young woman who keeps clinging to you and flirting with you to the point of interfering with your case. I've figured from the sheer number of visions I've been given, I'm supposed to either let you know or join you. Why, I have no idea yet." There was the slightest hint of amusement in Mai's voice as she spoke.

"Oh great! What did this annoying woman look like?" There was no amusement in Oliver's voice. It was sheer annoyance at the thought of yet another cling-on getting in his way.

"The usual, I guess. Curly haired blonde. Blue eyed. Marilyn Monroe type of figure. All hips and chest. Childlike voice."

"Well, shit! Here I thought I would get away with never having to see her again." This time Oliver's voice was pure anger.

"Not a fan, I take it?"

"Not particularly. She wouldn't take no for an answer on the airplane to Tokyo. Harassed both Lin and myself non-stop but was particularly focused on me for some reason."

"So how am I meant to figure in this? I didn't see myself there or anything in particular on the case itself. But there must be some reason I'm being sent those visions."

"Do you know who actually brings me the case?"

"An older gentleman. I think she's just someone you run into when there and latches onto you."

"All right. Let me find out what the case is about and I'll get back to you on how I'm going to have you help."

"Very well. I believe he'll be there in the morning. Good luck."

Once Oliver got off the phone to Mai, he left his office and went into Lin's.

"Mai just gave us a heads up on a case from her visions. The case itself is being brought to us by an older gentleman in the morning. However, everything Mai is seeing in her visions revolves around a particular annoying acquaintance of ours from our flight here who keeps interfering in the case."

"You mean the Marilyn Monroe look-a-like?"

"That's the one."

"Oh great!" Lin was particularly annoyed at this. That girl had been extremely persistent.

"I'm to let Mai know after we get the case how we get her to help out since she didn't particularly see herself there but assumed that the sheer numbers of visions she was getting meant to was required to help in some way."

"If this girl is going to be annoying us so much in the case I can think of a way for Mai to help. Get her to run interference on that girl. It may even be helpful if she acted as if she were in a relationship with one or both of us."

"Mai isn't going to be happy to hear that."

"I know, but it's the best idea I can think of without hearing what the actual case is first."

"I'll keep it in mind when I call her tomorrow."

The next morning, as Mai had seen, an older gentleman walked into SPR to ask for help. He ran a high end motel and had been experiencing issues of well off good looking young men disappearing in the middle of the night. One or two over a period of year wouldn't have seemed unusual. But poor Nagarimu-san said there had been 4 men missing in the last 2 months, every two weeks like clockwork. The last one disappeared only a week ago. Oliver agreed to take the case.

He and Lin spent a couple of hours researching likely causes and then sat around the phone, which had been put on speaker, to Mai. It was Mai who suggested the most likely suspect in Oliver's case.

"Have you considered a succubus?"

"I've never dealt with one of those before. Do you think it's likely?" Oliver considered it.

"Considering the number of visions of your favourite flight partner, I'd consider it the most likely cause. Perhaps you should investigate if there are any connections between places she's been and missing men? Actually, what's her name and I'll look it up now."

"I… don't actually know. I don't remember her ever telling me it. What about you Lin?"

"I… don't recall it either." Both men looked at each other in confusion.

"All right then, any ideas on how else I can you in this case, other than acting in the way Lin-san suggested in the vision I got yesterday?"

Both men covered their mouths in an embarrassed cough.

"Not really."

"Fine, I'll try to run interference between you two and her as much as possible but I'm not acting in a relationship with you unless it's absolutely necessary. I really have no interest in dating anyone. In the meantime, I'll bring my laptop with me so I can look up her history as soon as we have her name."

"Understood."

Two days later, Mai joined the SPR team officially on a case for the first time at Osaka Luxury Hotel ready to investigate and battle a possible succubus.


	17. Chapter 17 - The Succubus

When SPR arrived at Osaka Luxury Hotel Nagarimu provided Oliver with the hotel building plans, a list of the men who had gone missing and what rooms they had been in as well as a list of people who had been staying at the hotel during the times of the men's disappearances. He then showed the team to where they would be based. Thankfully they were given a private unit with a kitchen/dining room, a lounge and three bedrooms. Ayoko and Masako would be sharing the king-sized double bed in one room while Mai opted to sleep on a futon in that same room. Lin and Oliver took a room with two single beds. John, Monk and Yasuhara would take the third room, also containing two singles. Yasuhara opted to be the one to use a futon in that room.

Oliver set the men to bring in the equipment and turn the lounge into the base. He then set Ayoko and Masako to do a walk through of the hotel hallways and communal areas so Masako could get a feel for the place and determine if there were any spirits that they could be dealing with during their case. Mai was asked to set wards in all the rooms in the unit. Oliver was busy scouring over the building plans to decide on where to set up the cameras and microphones discretely.

It didn't take Mai long to set the wards so she picked up the lists of missing men and the list of people staying in the hotel at the time and began comparing the lists for commonalities. By the time Oliver had finished planning the camera and microphone set up, Mai had narrowed down the suspect list to five women who had been staying in the hotel each of the times the 4 men had disappeared. She was already doing a search through the police database on her laptop and printing out her results. Oliver began looking over the reports that Mai had printed curiously. It was when he reached the fourth woman that he stopped.

"That's the woman from the plane."

"I figured." Mai responded without looking. "It doesn't eliminate the other four women however. For all we know, all five women are succubi and travel together. They may be taking turns on feeding every two weeks so as not to raise suspicion. I won't know for sure until I've checked the records of the current customers staying since we're very close to when the next feeding should occur if the past two months are the cycle to go by. Or it could just be two or three that are the succubi and the rest of the women are pure coincidence. Did the woman from the plane travel with anyone that you saw?"

Oliver was shocked. For all his genius, he had only considered that there would only be one succubus since Mai had only been dreaming of one woman. He hadn't even thought that there may be more than one feeding or that they were taking turns. **Wait, we only arrived on the plane all of three weeks ago. How can she be the succubus?**

"Are we sure she even is one? After all we both only arrived in Japan three weeks ago. So how was she here for the others?"

Mai stared at Oliver then.

"Did you even read her travel history? She'd only been out of Japan for four days. She leaves Japan for England on a regular basis of once a month from what her travel history indicates."

Oliver blushed. He hadn't even read the travel history yet and he was jumping to conclusions. He heard a snort from Lin and looked up to see the others watching them in shock. They'd come in while he was looking over the reports of the women and he hadn't even noticed.

"I am only human. Even I can make a mistake. Get back to work. The plans are marked with where I need the cameras and microphones so far. Go in pairs or threes. Since the target is men, none of us men should be alone at any time while outside of base. John go with Hara-san. Mitsuzaki-san, you're with Takagawa and Yasuhara. Try to keep the bickering to a minimum. We are on a case after all."

Oliver turned back to Lin and Mai.

"The three of us are not to be separated at all outside of base. Mai, you are to accompany either of us should we need to leave base at any stage during the case."

"Is that really necessary, Davis-san?" Mai asked.

"I'm not taking any risks and you promised to run interference."

"Very well then. I don't see the point in arguing with you over it. Although, you do realise that both Hara-san and Mitsuzaki-san can easily do the same thing and both would be very willing?"

Both Lin and Oliver shuddered at that.

"They might be, but I'm not." Lin muttered.

"I can't tolerate them for such a role either." Oliver agreed.

"You never had a problem with dating Hara-san in the past." Mai said lightly before turning back to her research. She had began to look up what she could on dealing with succubi and see if there was an ideal way to get rid of them permanently. So far most of her findings dealt with getting rid of succubi in the home. She hadn't found anything promising yet for a more highly populated location such as a hotel.

"I wasn't exactly willing back then either. Hara-san held my real identity over my head."

"We all assumed you shared a sponsor. But it's no business of mine anyway. Any ideas on how to get rid of succubi from a hotel? All my research seems to be showing is ways to get rid of them from a home. Generally with a prayer or exorcism by a priest. Doesn't exactly say that it works on getting rid of them completely though, which makes me think it just evacuates them from the home rather than actually killing them. Short of purifying each room individually, I don't think it's going to be very helpful."

The change of subject stunned Oliver for a second. The Mai he was used to loved to argue and always got jealous whenever Masako got preferential treatment. He was a little saddened to realise that Mai no longer thought of him in terms of a crush. **Have I lost my chance?** He was shocked to find that thought hurt.

"Not so far. Most of my research has been much along the same lines. We've never dealt with one before."

"Anyone back in BSPR dealt with one in the past?"

Lin piped up then. "I'll send an email to Madoka and ask her to check any past BSPR cases for references to succubi."

Mai got up then. "I need a list of the people currently staying or booked into the hotel over the next few days to cross-reference our suspects to. Either of you coming with me?"

"I will. I need to do a walk through of the place myself to see if there are any areas of interest that we should be looking at that we aren't already. Lin watch the base and don't leave here alone. Lock the door, don't let anyone who isn't SPR in."

Lin merely nodded as Oliver joined Mai at the door. Mai looked back at Lin.

"I'll leave Aki with you. Tell her anything you need us to know. Especially tell us if any of those five women show up at our door or on the cameras."

"Thanks Mai. Will do."

Oliver and Mai left the base then and began walking to the elevator. Their unit was in the fifth floor.

"Your shiki are more effective than a walkie talkie. Would it be possible to send one each to the others to watch over them?"

"I already had. Aoi is with Brown-san and Hara-san. They're currently on the third floor. Mogi is with the others. They're on the ground floor."

"How long have you had your shiki following them about?"

"Since we'd arrived and began to separate for set up."

"Has anyone noticed?"

"Not really. Hara-san might suspect but you'd have to ask her to be sure."

"I have to say it, Mai, you are amazing. I wouldn't have even thought to ask Lin to do that. It might have saved us half the trouble you seemed to attract in the past if we had."

"I wouldn't be surprised if Lin had one always following you in the past. You were his main charge back then. I'm also pretty sure he has Rin tagging along with us now. Hello Rin."

Mai felt Rin caress her check in greeting. Oliver couldn't see or feel him and could only shrug his shoulders.

"How do you know which of Lin's shiki are with us?"

"I've met them all. Rin has visited me often in the last couple of weeks. He's quite fond of Kiki."

By this time Oliver and Mai had reached Nagarimu's office and made short work of getting the information they had been seeking. They were just heading back to the elevator when a sweet, child-like voice called out to Oliver and a very feminine body pushed Mai out of the way to latch onto him.

"Oh, Oliver-kun! Imagine meeting you here of all places! It must be fate! Are you here on holiday too? You simply must join me for dinner tonight!"

Mai looked amused as she not-so-gently removed the woman's hands off of Oliver's arm and linking her own around it instead.

"Naru and I already have plans with friends for dinner tonight. Perhaps we could join you another night, miss... I'm sorry, but who are you again, and how do you know Naru?"

The other woman, who Mai knew to be one Brandy Willowson from her research, looked a little disconcerted to have another woman interfere in her plans to snag Oliver. She looked Mai up and down and dismissed her as no one of concern, before deciding to ignore her. She reached out to pull on Oliver's other arm.

"Oliver-kun, you simply must come see the garden with me! It has such a delightful view! Simply breathtaking."

Oliver pulled his arm roughly out of Brandy's arm and moved behind Mai, wrapping both arms around her waist.

"Do I know you? You're rather rude. I believe my partner already told you that we're busy."

The elevator arrived then and Brandy could only look on in shock as Mai and Oliver got on it. Mai quickly pressed the button to shut the doors to prevent Brandy from entering and hitting a different floor number to the one they were on.

"No point letting her know what floor we're on so early on in the game. Persistent wasn't she?"

"Thank you Mai. Lin and I struggled to shake her on the plane. I'm not sure what I would have done if I was by myself just then. Her grip was quite strong and I think she might have been emitting some sort of pheromone whenever she touched me. If you hadn't been holding my arm at the time, I think I might have gone with her quite easily."

"I said I'd run interference. Although she's definitely set you as a target. Rin, did Lin catch any of that on one of the cameras?"

"Yes, Mai, camera 4 caught the whole interaction. That's the first time you've used my name without the -san since we've been back." Rin responded on Lin's behalf.

"Good, I want to review it when we get back. Sorry Lin-san. Old habit I guess."

"No, please don't! Drop the -san, please." Rin relayed.

"All right, Lin then. We're on our way back anyway. See you soon."

Mai pressed the button for the fifth floor since the elevator had stopped on the third floor in her aim to misdirect Brandy.

"So Lin got it on camera, then?"

"Yes he did, Davis-san."

"Naru. If you can go back to calling Lin, Lin, then you can go back to calling me Naru. Please Mai!"

"Very well, Naru. If you insist."

"I do."

Mai merely walked out of the newly opened elevator doors and headed to their unit to see what they'd caught on camera.


	18. Chapter 18 - 3 In The Bed

There wasn't a whole lot to see in the footage of Mai and Oliver's interaction with Brandy. For the most part, it looked very much like a normal conversion with a particularly persistent person. The one thing that did stand out, however, was the glazed look on Oliver's face whenever Brandy touched him until Mai counteracted it with her own touch.

"Probably the pheromones that you mentioned." Mai stated. "Although it seems that other women are able to dispel the pheromones that the succubi release on touch. It's probably a good idea to always keep one of us women with any of the men when they have to leave base. Especially if they only have to touch you to get you to go with them. Particularly you, Naru. From what my visions were saying, you are the main target this time."

Oliver wasn't sure if it was the pheromones from Brandy. Or if it was the memory he had of the scent of Mai's hair and the feel of her curved backside (so much more filled out and defined since the time he protected her from the roof collapsing on her in the infirmary at Yasuhara's school back when they were still teenagers) against his front, that he had when holding her from behind to counteract the succubus' pheromones. Either way, he had been feeling a little off kilter since the whole incident had occurred. Although if he was really being honest with himself, Oliver had been feeling off kilter since Mai had walked back into his life.

"You're probably right. Are the others finished yet?"

"Everything has been set up. The others should be on their way back already."

Replied Lin. He'd had a slight frown on his face since before Mai and Oliver had walked back into base and it had only deepened when reviewing the footage. He was unhappy with the level of touching Oliver had done with Mai at the time although he wasn't exactly sure why. He couldn't be jealous, surely?

The others began to enter base then. First John and Masako and then Monk, Ayako and Yasuhara a few minutes later. Mai boiled the kettle and made tea for everyone before joining them in the lounge for a team meeting to review what they had all learned. She began perusing the list of customers staying in the hotel over the next few days as they talked. Masako started it off.

"I felt no presence of spirits here while walking around."

"I can concur with that. We aren't dealing with ghosts this time." Mai agreed.

"From what Nagasaki-san described and from what happened earlier, we're fairly sure we're dealing with at least one succubus. More than likely more than one." Oliver added.

"I'd say there are two judging from this list compared with the others at the time of the disappearances. They must take turns to feed once a month each on alternative fortnights. This fortnight must be Brandy Willowson's turn. The other succubus would be one Desiree Chelsea."

Mai pulled out the photos of the two women that she had printed out earlier when she had done research on the five women she had narrowed down from the other lists. She handed them to Yasuhara who was sitting next to her.

"Take a good look at those women. If you see them at any time while working this case, do not let them touch you. They apparently release some sort of pheromone with their touch that puts the male target in a daze. None of you men should be alone outside of base. Always have one of us women with you. We can counteract the pheromones with our own touch. I haven't seen anyone but Naru as a target in my visions but that doesn't mean it can't change."

"What happened earlier?" Monk asked.

Lin replayed the footage of the incident with Brandy taken earlier for the others to see.

"Madoka came back. She said there was one case that BSPR handled some 15 years back. She's following up on what happened in it and will send it back as soon as she has it." Lin added once the footage had finished.

"Anyone else have anything to add?" Oliver asked. Everyone shook their heads in the negative.

"Alright then, let's order dinner from the hotel kitchen and call it a night."

It was a quiet night for the SPR team as they all went to bed. Mai had her shiki keep watch even with the wards in each of the rooms and the main door into the unit locked. It was better to be safe than sorry.

...

The next morning had Ayako making coffee and ordering breakfast for the team while Oliver, Lin and Mai watched over the footage from the night before. So far, apart from seeing the two suspected succubi in the restaurant, bar and walking through the hallways of the hotel, nothing of interest happened. The other team members began wandering into the lounge as the door bell rung from room service with their breakfast.

It was while the others were chatting as they ate that Oliver noticed Mai's glazed eyes. As soon as she blinked and her eyes had refocused, he spoke.

"Mai, what did you see?"

"Two alternatives. The first where you and Lin sleep in the room you are in and you both get taken in the middle of the night while we all sleep. The other alternative has you and Lin swapping rooms with Matsuzaki-san and Hara-san."

"What's the difference between the two alternatives?" Lin asked, noting how uncomfortable Mai looked on disclosing the second alternative.

"The second alternative had 3 people sleeping in the bed in the girl's room. You two obviously, along with one of us women. When the two succubi arrived, it was the presence of the woman between you that prevented them from taking you and allowed us to destroy them. Lin and I will set circle wards inside the bedroom where I saw them standing in my vision. Brown-san and Takagawa-san, you will both need to perform an exorcism on them both at the same time. I could just blow them up with my PK but that could get messy and would be a bit of overkill."

"So who is the lucky woman that gets to sleep with Lin and Naru?" Ayoko asked with a huge grin and rubbing her hands together.

"I believe Mai already answered that. Her words were, and I quote 'swapping rooms with Matsuzaki-san and Hara-san.' You two will be sleeping in our current room tonight while Lin and I sleep in your room."

Masako glared at Mai with Oliver's words, having noticed that she'd made no mention of herself swapping rooms with the other two women. She had all but given up on trying to gain Oliver's attention and wasn't happy that her perceived rival was going to get to sleep next to him.

"Surely it doesn't matter which one of us is there. Just because your vision places you with them in the room doesn't mean it has to be so! I would be more than happy to protect you Naru!"

Both Oliver and Lin restrained a shudder at the thought.

"I think we'll stick with Mai's vision as a best case scenario of success. If someone else was meant to be there, Mai would have seen it."

"Perhaps she was lying just to get you to herself?" Masako wasn't letting this go.

"Why on earth would I do that? I have no feelings for either Naru or Lin and if you have forgotten, both men need the protection tonight, not just Naru." Mai stated blandly to Masako. "Naru is all yours."

"Then you share Lin's bed and I'll share Naru's."

"I'll pass." Oliver muttered. "We're sticking with Mai's vision. Lin and I will share a bed with Mai. It's safer."

Whether he meant it was safer from the succubi or safer from Masako, Oliver wasn't saying. But there was no way he was letting Lin share a bed with Mai by themselves.

Monk decided to change the topic then.

"Hey, Jou-chan, when are you going to start calling me Bou-san again? I've noticed you've started calling them Naru and Lin. When did that happen?"

"Since yesterday afternoon, after the incident with Brandy, when they asked me to."

"Then I'm asking you, please call me Bou-san again!"

"And me! Call me Ayako again, Mai, please!"

"Please call me Yasu again."

"I'd be happy if you called me John again."

Mai looked at each one who asked. Only Masako refused to speak up. She had never been happy with Mai calling her by her first name. But then again, she had never been happy with the fact that Mai was the only one Oliver has ever called by her first name either.

"Very well, if you insist."

She turned away then and picked up her laptop intending to try and do more research into succubi. Maybe she could find some new information that she hadn't found already. She had just gotten settled in an armchair when Oliver spoke.

"Mai, tea."

Mai looked up at Oliver. He was smirking. She was sure he was expecting the old response to his demands. Instead his smirk dropped as Mai looked back at her laptop after waving a hand. A few minutes later, Oliver's jaw dropped as his tea floated out of the kitchen and set itself on the coffee table in front of him.

"Do some work, Naru." Mai said as she researched and the others looked on in shock.


	19. Chapter 19 - Bye Bye Succubi

Mai kept herself busy researching the rest of that day and out of Masako's sulking presence. Masako and Ayoko had removed their things from the the girl's current room and into Lin and Oliver's room, while Lin and Oliver moved their stuff to the girl's room. John and Monk tried their best to keep the other two women distracted with card games after the room swap. Yasuhara preferred to help Mai and Oliver with the research.

Lin was keeping watch over the camera footage. He stiffened up about halfway through the afternoon while watching the camera focused on the hallway outside their base.

"Naru."

Both Oliver and Mai looked up then. On the camera both Brandy and Desiree could be seen lurking outside the door to their unit getting ready to knock.

"Masako, keep a hand on John and Yasu. Ayako, you do the same with Monk. Lin, you and I keep hold of Mai."

"So who is answering the door?" Mai asked sarcastically.

"You are." Oliver retorted.

Mai walked over to the door with Lin and Oliver following. When the knock came, she waited a couple of minutes and then opened it. Both Lin and Oliver had a hand on her shoulders and stood behind her, keeping Mai between themselves and the succubi. Mai carefully kept the entryway blocked so that the two women couldn't force themselves in.

"Oh, it's you again. And you brought a friend. Can we help you?" Mai looked at the two women with a raised eyebrow.

"Oliver-kun, we came to see if you and Lin-kun wanted to join us for dinner and a show tonight. Perhaps we could have some fun?"

Brandy winked at Oliver in what Mai assumed was supposed to be a seductive manner. The two women completely ignored Mai's presence focusing only on the two men behind her.

"No, thank you. We have plenty of entertainment for ourselves right here." Oliver replied.

"Are you sure? We know how to satisfy such vital men like yourselves. Much more than this poor specimen of a woman could. We could keep you happy all night long."

Both succubi reached out and tried to touch Lin and Oliver from behind Mai. Mai knocked their arms away and both men wrapped an arm tightly around Mai's waist in protection.

"We'll pass."

Lin snorted and he pushed the door shut and locked it while Oliver pulled Mai inside and out of the way. Everyone watched through the camera as the two women stamped their feet in an obvious temper and left.

"Their pheromones were even stronger that time, even without them touching us." Oliver said pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Without Mai's physical presence between us, I think we would have fallen prey to them quite easily." Lin agreed.

The other men murmured their agreement. Even from inside, they could feel the pheromones and it was only the presence of the women touching them that prevented them from following the succubi out the door.

"Perhaps it would pay to have a woman's presence with the rest of us as well, if just the pheromones can work. It wouldn't do to have the rest of us fall victim while Lin and Naru escape protected." Monk suggested.

"I'll leave that to your discretion. Work it out however you want. Just remember that Mai stays with us." Oliver replied.

"The other rooms are all singles. How on earth are we going to share a bed and with whom?" Masako asked.

"Just push the two single beds together in each room." Yasu pointed out. "Monk, Ayako and I will take one room. John and Masako can take the other."

"Why can't John and Lin share with Mai, and you and I share, Naru?" Masako whined.

"Because you don't have anything to blackmail me with anymore and I can barely stand you touching me as it is."

Oliver retorted and he left the lounge for the bedroom to escape and get some well needed peace and quiet. Masako was left struggling to take in Oliver's response while everyone else appeared to busy themselves with other things.

All except Mai, that is. She had already gone into the kitchen long before Oliver and Masako's argument, in order to request dinner for the team to be sent up. Happily missing the whole thing since she had no interest in it.

Lin had received a message from Madoka during dinner regarding the case conducted by BSPR 15 years ago. There was nothing new in there. A simple exorcism by a priest had eradicated the succubus from the home of its victim.

Mai had found a body count in her research, following the two succubi all over Europe dating back 5 years for one and 8 years for the other. The numbers jumped once the two joined together in hunting. The body count in Japan only went back as far as 6 months. They knew what they were doing. The men disappeared and their bodies were found 3 months later. Coroner's reports placed the time of death 2 days after the disappearance. None of the police investigations had made the connection between the two women and the missing men despite reports of women hanging around the men at the time. This caused Mai to sigh loudly in disgust. Apparently they couldn't believe that women were just as capable of being serial killers as men were.

...

After dinner, Lin and Mai went into the bedroom and began preparing the circle wards that would trap the succubi. Lin did his usual double circle on both sides of the bed then sat back and watched as Mai added two more rings to his work. They were a work of art and much more intricate than his own which surprised him. By the time Mai was done over an hour later, Lin couldn't see any of the rings with either of his eyes.

"Don't worry. We can all walk in and out of them without fear of being trapped. Only succubi can be caught by them."

"They look like a work of art compared with my own. I'm going to have to up my game with you around."

Lin grinned Mai hoping for a response. He didn't get the one he hoped for but the one he'd started to expect from watching her interact with the others. Mai merely shrugged and put away her tools. She'd learnt the hard way what happened if her ring wards were sloppy and she had the scars on her body to prove it. It wasn't like she'd had anyone else to save her from her mistakes in the past. Her friend who taught her was a good teacher but not overly strong in magic herself.

"Noromi was a great teacher but she had little in the way of power herself. I had to learn quickly to get my wards perfect or suffer the consequences of my mistakes. Even the nicest of demons can turn violent when they notice they have been summoned into an imperfect ward."

Lin stilled. It wasn't often that Mai volunteered information willingly of her past. He hoped she would tell more but Mai was done with her tale. She grabbed her pj's and headed to the bathroom. She was tired and was ready to go to sleep. The men could join her when they were ready. She wasn't waiting for them.

Lin left the room to give her privacy while she bathed and rejoined the others in the lounge. They all chatted for a while over tea that Masako had made reluctantly for everyone. Then group by group disappeared into their selected bedrooms to sleep and wait out the succubi.

It was about this time that Lin and Oliver realised that Mai hadn't rejoined them in the lounge and they both went to on her in the bedroom. They found her curled up on her side asleep in the middle of the bed. Both men grinned softly in her direction. They took turns in the bathroom and joined Mai in the bed. Lin on the far side of the room and behind Mai. Oliver on the door side of the room and in front of her. Both men lay on their sides facing her and each other.

"How are we going to work this? We need to be touching her to counteract the pheromones." Oliver asked.

Lin simply moved along side of Mai until he was touching her back and put and arm around her waist. Oliver repeated Lin's movement from his place in the front making sure Mai's face was clear so she could breathe. The end result looked and felt very intimate especially when Mai's legs moved in her sleep to tangle with theirs.

They suddenly realised that Mai's pj's weren't of the long modest variety that they were expecting. Her legs were bare where they touched them. As was her arms. Her spaghetti strap singlet had risen around her waist in her sleep and their arms were touching bare skin. The men shifted slightly with a groan to ease the area of their pj pants that had tightened. It didn't help that neither men had thought to put a top on for bed. Both were used to pj pants only when they slept. This was going to be harder than they thought.

It took them an hour but the two men finally calmed down enough to go to sleep despite the intimate position they were in. It was a mere 20 minutes later that Mai's shiki woke her up alerting her to the presence of the two succubi who had entered the unit with a key they had swiped. The shiki informed Mai as the women checked each room until they found the one she shared with Lin and Oliver.

Mai waited quietly and patiently for the two women to separate and walk to either side of the bed right into the traps that Lin and Mai had placed earlier that night. Mai sat up then and her eyes glowed with amusement as the women screamed in frustration at not being able to moved. The screaming woke up the two men sleeping on either side of her as well as the rest of the team who came running into their room.

"Nice of you to join us. John, Jou-san, could you please get ready to perform your exorcisms? Remember you will have to perform at the same time for each succubus. Don't worry, they won't be going anywhere. You have plenty of time." Mai looked down at her waist and added with a raised eyebrow "Lin, Naru, I think you can let me go now. Their pheromones shouldn't be able to affect you from inside the wards."

Both Lin and Oliver removed their arms reluctantly from where they were placed around Mai's waist and untangled their legs from hers. Neither men shifted away from Mai's sides however which caused a squeal of anger from Masako who was watching this.

Ayako rolled her eyes and guided Masako away from the sight and into the lounge. John left to prepare with a dark blush covering his cheeks. Monk and Yasu merely grinned and snapped a photo to send to the other two men later. They'd both noticed Lin and Oliver's slightly flirty attention with Mai over the last couple of days.

Mai sat up and crossed her legs. Her knees rested gently on top of Oliver's and Lin's thighs since they still wouldn't move away. She used her PK to flick on the light above the bed and to float a book over and began to read as she waited for John and Monk to finish getting ready and do their exorcisms. She ignored the screams of the succubi and the men pressed up against her on either side easily. She hadn't been lying when she told Masako earlier that day that she had no interest in either man. They were coworkers on a case that had needed protection to her, nothing more. As far as she was concerned, her job was almost done.

John and Monk soon came back and performed the their exorcism in sync with each other first on one succubus and then on the other. Each exorcism took 40 minutes before the succubus in question blew up into red smoke. The screaming of the second succubus, Desiree, growing louder with the successful exorcism of the first, Brandy.

As soon as the exorcisms had been completed she shooed everyone, including Oliver and Lin, who had been chattering away excitedly about the nights events, out of the room.

"If you're going to talk go out to the lounge. I need my sleep. Good night."

With that, Mai used her PK to shut the door, put away her book and turn off the lights before curling up and going back to sleep. Eventually the chatter died down and the girls went back to their new room while Yasuhara, Monk and John went back to their original room. That left Lin and Oliver in the lounge unsure of what to do.

Lin opened the bed to Mai's room and took note that she was still sleeping in the center of the king sized double bed. He looked back at Oliver.

"The bed is still big enough for all 3 of us to sleep in. Even without being so close to her as we were before."

Oliver shrugged and both men entered the room, shut the door and climbed into bed on their original sides. It didn't take them long to fall asleep. Both were exhausted from the night's events. Neither men had realised that they had drifted closer to Mai in their sleep.

Mai woke up early the next morning. She was grumpy to find she was restrained once again by their limbs, much as she had been the first time when the succubi had entered the room. When the two men woke up late the following morning, they were disappointed to find Mai had already gotten dressed and left the room.


	20. Chapter 20 - The Calm Before The Storm

Mai was grateful to enter her office the day after the SPR succubus case. She needed the respite from the constant touching and flirting from Lin and Oliver in the last day of the case. The touches were subtle and usually came across as innocently done. Mai was not oblivious, however. Ever since the two men had shared her bed during the case, they'd obviously applied more meaning to it than she had.

It was nice to be able to throw herself back into her normal job of solving cold cases. Nice to be able to work with men who saw her as one of the guys and weren't trying to flirt with her every five minutes. It was a relief to have the more formal interactions that her coworkers gave her at the precinct. She hadn't realised just how suffocating the close knit environment was when the SPR team were together and it felt like she could finally breathe now that she was away from them and back in her solitary office.

She picked up the folder she had left on her desk prior to dealing with the succubi. The cold case involved two little girls whose skeletons had been found at the bottom of a dry well. Only stray pieces of fabric had been left of the clothing the girls had worn. Neither girl had been identified in the 10 years since they'd been found and no murderer had been brought to justice. It wasn't clear how long the girls skeletons had been in the well before they had been found either. Opening the box that accompanied the folder, Mai selected an evidence container holding some brittle fabric and tried to see any visions she could of the case.

By the time she had blinked back the vision, her shiki were crowded around her absorbing her sadness. If Mai had been capable of crying these days, she certainly would have been now. The girls' stories had been so sad.

Their mother had passed away from the flu. Their father had remarried a horrible woman. Two years after their marriage, world war two had broken out and he went off to war where he died. The girls had been abused by their stepmother until she had word of her husband's death. Then one night she bundled them up, tied a large stone to their bodies and threw them into the still full well. The girls had drowned. She then told the neighbours that the girls had run away in their grief and remarried once the war had ended. There was no one to bring to justice. The stepmother had passed away before the skeletons had been found.

Mai conducted a thorough investigation using her visions to guide her to the evidence and the people she needed to speak to to back them. She knew full well that her visions could not be used in evidence in a court case and required proper investigation to end a case. Mai then typed up a report closing the case when she had done. It was a successful day well spent. Sometimes it took her a few days to gain the evidence she needed to close a case or bring the culprit to justice. It was pleasant to have an open and shut case like this done in a day.

She went to bed happy that night although she almost regretted it when she found Gene waiting for her. He was there on a social basis rather than because he had a message from Oliver or because of a vision. Mai almost smacked him over the head when she realised that he'd caught the flirty bug from his brother and acted jealous over Oliver and Lin sharing her bed during the case.

"Would you stop acting like a spoilt child before I decide to block you again?" Mai said in the end. "Enough with the flirting as well. The other two are bad enough without adding a perpetually hormonal teenager to the mix."

Gene gulped and looked ashamed of himself.

"Sorry Mai. I'll try to reign it in. You are a very attractive woman though."

"I'm the only woman you see on a regular basis so don't pull that card. I'm not interested in a relationship with anyone. Not in the spirit world or the physical one."

The conversation finally moved onto more mundane topics before Gene finally left to allow Mai to have a normal sleep. The rest of the night was quiet and peaceful. As was the night following it and the night after that.

...

Back at SPR, however, two men had spent a restless few nights tossing and turning in their beds. Both men had somehow gotten used to having Mai in their arms with just the one night and somehow they couldn't get used to sleeping alone again. They were both moody the next morning from their sleepless night and filled with thoughts of how to convince the reluctant Mai to return to their beds.

...

A happily ignorant Mai walked into her office again that day to work on the next cold case in her pile. She wasn't happy or ignorant for long. When the first set of flowers arrived, Mai took them to the lunch room and left them there. The second set was left for the receptionist to make use off. The chocolates and sweets that arrived later in the day were also left in the lunch room for her coworkers to consume. The bottles of wine, she gave to the police chief for his wife. Mai didn't drink. The soft toys were given to Takiana for his young daughter. The perfume was left to the receptionist and to Takiana's wife. The jewellery, a beautiful gold toned pearl earrings and necklace set in one box and a diamond tennis bracelet in the other were left to other men to give to their wives. Mai kept nothing for herself but several of her coworkers were obviously going to get lucky that night.

The two men were pleased that all their gifts had been accepted thinking that Mai had kept them. So it was with some surprise when at the end of the second day a huge basket containing everything they had send that day was sent back to them. The third day, the gifts weren't even accepted. Mai walked into the SPR office at that end of that day, visibly fuming.

"Will the pair of you quit it!" She bit out tersely. "As I have already told your brother Naru, I am not interested in a relationship. I have no clue what the hell you two want but stop sending me things I have no use for. FYI, I gave away all the stuff that arrived on the first day as they came."

Lin and Oliver were shocked. They were used to women who fell into bed with them with the first day of gifts. That Mai was resistant to it all both stunned and intrigued them further. Mai, watching their faces, slumped into a chair. They were trying to win her over for a reason.

"What exactly do you two want from me?" Mai asked with her head in her hands.

"We haven't exactly been able to sleep since we've gotten back from that case."

Oliver stated as they joined her in the seating area.

"What does that have to do with me?" Mai responded.

"Somehow after just one night, we miss your presence in our sleep." Lin said quietly.

"Again, what does that have to do with me? All you need is a warm body to hug. You can both find willing women to fill your arms at night. I'm not needed at all."

"You're wrong, Mai. It's you or no one." Oliver stated.

"It's the same for me." Lin agreed.

"I'm not a succubus. I haven't sent out pheromones to seduce you. So why is it me or nothing? Did someone cast a spell on you?"

Mai couldn't see any signs of a spell on either of the men. Nor had she had any visions of such a thing happening. But that didn't mean it hadn't. A good spell caster could prevent her from doing so quite easily and it would explain the constant flirting. All she saw was two very tired men sitting in front of her.

"What exactly do you two want from me?" She asked again.

"Please, let us share a bed again. So we can get some sleep." Oliver begged, the tiredness in his voice obvious.

"Please Mai." Lin added.

Mai could only groan at their pleading faces. "Very well. One night. And sleep only. Don't get any ideas of anything more or I'll leave and never return."

The office was locked up and Mai was hurried up the stairs to the apartment faster than she could blink once the two men had processed her agreement. It was Mai that ended up cooking dinner that night. She had taken one look at Lin stumbling around in the kitchen and almost setting fire to a tea towel before she shooed him away and took over. He and Oliver slumped in the chairs at the dining table watching her cook.

There was something therapeutic in watching Mai cook their dinner. The meal was eaten quickly with much pleasure as soon as it had been placed before them and they tasted it. It was Lin's second time eating Mai's cooking but Oliver's first. Both men enjoyed it very much.

Mai had no clothes with her to sleep in since she hadn't planned on staying the night with them so Oliver lent her a shirt to sleep in. The next decision was whose bed would they use. Lin's one was bigger so they used his. Mai was the first one to climb into the center of the bed with the two men following behind her on either side and quickly wrapping her up like they had that night. They were asleep on her shoulders before she could blink.

Mai flicked off the light with her PK and sighed, trying to get comfortable enough to sleep. She had been asleep already when they had done this during the succubi case so it wasn't as easy this time now that they'd gone to sleep before her. It didn't help that their arms tightened around her waist every time she shifted slightly. Giving up on trying to get a little space from the two men, Mai closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

It was the most relaxed sleep that Lin and Oliver had had since they had gotten back from the case and they were grateful that Mai hadn't run off on them the next morning. Instead she cooked breakfast and made them tea. She ate quietly before wishing them a good day and heading back to her apartment for a shower and a change of clothes for work.

Mai was only partially surprised to find them knocking on her door that night, overnight bags in hand. She let them in with a sigh and got on with cooking dinner. She wasn't going to get much research into her current cold case that night.

Before long, it seemed to become almost routine to find them on her doorstep every night. So much so, that they began leaving small items there like their toothbrushes in her bathroom and changes of clothes in her wardrobe.

Most evenings Mai would solidify Gene for a couple of hours for Oliver and he would join them for dinner. The four of them would sit in Mai's office while she worked discussing some of the requests that Mai got in her email or the cases that SPR had been given to determine if they were interesting enough to take. Mai slowly got used to the constant touching and even the occasional cheek kiss although they kept the verbal flirting to a minimum once Mai had threatened to throw them out one evening.

Mai refused to give them a key to her apartment however. Nor did she acknowledge any formal relationship with them. As far as she was concerned, she was a sleeping pillow for the two men and maybe friends. Nothing more than that. None of them mentioned the arrangement to the other SPR team members. It was none of their business.

So it was only logical that it came as a shock to the others on the next case that Mai joined them on.


	21. Chapter 21 - The Clown House

It wasn't long before a new interesting case was brought to SPR. A realtor was trying to sell a house with a history of children who went missing and murder-suicide of the parents. Supposedly every time a family moved in, the children disappeared one by one and the husband killed his wife and then himself afterwards. There had been three families following this pattern dating back to the 1970s that the realtor knew of and he was having trouble selling the house due to the history.

When the team pulled up to the house in their respective vehicles a couple of days after receiving the case, the others (other than Masako) were glad to see Mai getting out of the van with Oliver and Lin. It was almost like old times.

Masako brought on the dramatics as soon she walked through the front door, slumping against Oliver with her kimono sleeve over her mouth.

"What a horrible presence in this house. It's so foul." She said in a frightened tone. "I feel so faint."

It shocked her and everyone else, other than Lin and Mai, when Oliver promptly pushed Masako over to John to deal with and stepped away. He directed Mai to setting up wards in the room that he selected as the base and the three bedrooms that had been chosen for them to sleep in. Oliver then instructed the men to bring in the equipment and Masako and Ayako to do a walk through of the house taking temperature measurements as they went from room to room.

Everything went as normal that first day. Cameras and microphones were set up around the house. Mai and Yasu did some research into the history of the house and the land surrounding it. Nothing paranormal happened during this time but that was fairly normal on a case. Most spirits took a day or two before starting any activity to reveal their presence. Mai made them dinner that night. Lin and Oliver were used to her cooking by then although it was the first time the others had tried it. Monk and Yasu enjoyed it so much that they went for seconds.

It was when it was time for bed that the rest of the team got their second shock of the day.

"Hey Mai, where is your stuff? Its not in our room." Ayako asked.

The other irregulars all stopped to stare at her. Mai said nothing. She just continued walking past Ayako and Masako, who were standing the doorway of the girls room, and on towards the one that Lin and Oliver were sharing. Everyone's mouths dropped and Masako let out an angry scream when Mai walked into the room followed closely by Lin and Oliver. Neither of the men offered an explanation that night and it was a long time before any of the others fell asleep in their own rooms.

The next morning, the others staggered into the kitchen blurry eyed to find Mai, Oliver and Lin already eating breakfast and drinking a hot cup of tea.

"The kettle has just been reboiled and the food is still hot on the stove top. Help yourselves." Mai said as they walked in.

She collected her plates along with Oliver's and Lin's and started washing them. The three of them deliberately ignored the questioning faces that the irregulars were sending in their direction. Once Mai was done, the three of them moved into the base to begin reviewing the footage taken during the night.

It didn't take long for others to finish eating and hurry into the base after answers. Masako was the first to start verbally demanding answers for the previous night's shock. She had peeked into their room that morning to discover that it was the master bedroom and there was only one bed.

"What was that last night?! Why is Mai sharing a room with you and why is there only ONE BED?!"

"Is that any business of yours?" Oliver answered blandly.

Masako had the appearance of a goldfish for a few minutes after that. She was used to getting her own way. She was a celebrity after all. In the past Oliver had given in to her attentions, albeit reluctantly and because she had been blackmailing him. **Was Mai so greedy that she had to have BOTH men?!**

The others weren't sure what to say. Lin and Mai were ignoring them, focused on reviewing the footage and Oliver had calmly turned back to his own screen after his response to Masako's demand for answers.

"How long had this been going on?" Monk finally asked, feeling like he had a responsibility as a father figure to Mai like he had been in the past. It was one thing to have a relationship with one man but two? And one of them was 12 years older than her!

Mai was the one to answer Monk although she didn't even look up as she spoke.

"You are not my father, Bou-san, and I am no longer a teenage girl. I haven't been for a long time. I have no need for the 'fatherly protectiveness' of the past over something that is my own business."

Lin interrupted them all then by pointing out a dark humanoid shadow caught on the footage from one of the cameras taken last night. It had been recorded in the hallway walking past the bedroom doors.

"Mai, have you had visions on this case yet?" Oliver asked.

"Yeah, there was one yesterday about a family whose father killed one of their children and cooked them up for dinner for the rest of the family without them knowing. It was disturbing but I got the impression that the father was acting out of character. I had another this morning of a man who lived here with his wife. He liked to dress up as a clown and attended a lot of children's birthday parties. He didn't come across as a nice man however."

Ayako shuddered when Mai described the first dream. Cannibalism was scary and considered a taboo topic, especially when it involved children. To think that they maybe dealing with a spirit who did so creeped her out.

"No wonder Masako called the presence foul yesterday." Yasu said.

"He's not the only spirit here however. Just the strongest." Mai stated. "The others appear to have been trapped here by him. Most of them are children; although there are 7 other adults also wandering around the place."

"Mitsuzaki-san, are there any trees around that you can use?" Oliver asked.

"Yeah I can sense an old tree in a park not far from here that would work. I'm not sure if it would purify the foul spirit though it should clear away the ones he's trapped here."

"Good, Takagawa, go with her to get what she needs. The sooner we clear away the innocent spirits, the sooner we can focus on him."

Oliver then turned to Lin and Mai.

"Do you think you can trap him in one of your circle wards like we did the succubi?"

Mai and Lin looked at each other for a moment. Then Mai spoke.

"We can set one up, possibly in the hallway. However we have no guarantee that he will fall for it as yet. It might take a couple of days to catch him and it would work best once the other spirits have been cleared away."

Lin nodded in agreement.

"Then be prepared to set up the circle ward as soon as Matsuzaki-san has cleared the house of the rest of the spirits. John, would you be comfortable performing the exorcism?"

"Not a problem, mate. I'll get ready to go as soon as he's trapped in Lin and Mai's wards."

...

Later that afternoon Ayako performed her purification ritual in the back yard of the house as the others kept watch over her. A large multitude of child spirits came rushing excitedly towards her, followed by three pairs of adult spirits and a lone female adult. The lone female spirit stopped in front Mai briefly.

"Thank you for helping the children. My husband was a bad man. His spirit still is. I could not move on until I knew someone would stop him."

Mai offered a warm smile to her before the spirit moved on to Ayoko for purifying. It was the first real smile that the others had seen from Mai since she had come back into their lives and while the others were enchanted at the sight, Oliver and Lin were particularly captivated by it.

"He's the only one left now." Mai stated before turned back to enter the house with Lin at her side. They were ready to start drawing the ward trap in the hallway outside the bedrooms. Oliver entered the base and kept watch over them from the cameras with one of Mai's shiki keeping watch with him.

Although Oliver could not see Mai's shiki, he knew from past experience that it was there and would relay any instructions from him to Mai instantly. There was usually one that followed Lin around as well. Oliver grinned. Mai was unusually attentive towards his and Lin's safety since the 3 of them had started sharing a bed. Even if she refused to let the relationship go any further than platonic sleeping. She could deny a relationship all she wanted but they definitely had one.

He debating about asking her to move in with him and Lin on a more permanent basis. It made more sense than them keeping a separate residence when they had shared a bed together every night since the first one. He'd have to discuss it with her and Lin after this case.

If she did agree to moving in then maybe they could convince her to make the relationship a less platonic one than it has been so far. She accepted their kisses to the cheek, their hugs and the occasional light touches to her backside these days. It might be time to try the next little step. He'd talk to Lin privately about that. There was no way he'd talk to her about it. She'd run a mile in the other direction.

He knew that neither of them had a hope in getting a relationship with her on their own. They would have to share her together or ruin everything completely. The 3 of them had a symbiotic relationship which revolved around Mai. You couldn't remove one without the rest falling apart.

...

An hour and a half after they started, Mai and Lin had finished drawing their ward trap in the hallway without incident and Mai had gone into the kitchen to cook dinner. Lin joined Oliver in the base to watch the cameras. The irregulars who had drifted into the base while Mai and Lin were drawing the wards began drifting into the kitchen when the delicious smell of dinner started wafting through the house. Lin and Oliver joined them once they noticed Mai start to dish up through the camera.

Masako watched the 3 of them jealously. Noticing how closely the two men sat on either side of Mai and how the movements of all three were in sync with each other. **What kind of relationship did they have, that they acted like three parts of a whole?** Neither man had to think as they maneuvered automatically around Mai and she maneuvered automatically in turn around them. Masako picked up on the constant light touches that both men placed on Mai throughout the meal. **I never even had a chance with Naru.** She reflected sadly to herself.

No one said a word when Mai walked into the master bedroom later that night followed by Lin and Oliver. They had gotten over the shock from the evening before. Mai did not get much sleep that night however. As soon as the two men had climbed into bed behind Mai, they had surprised her, not by kissing her cheek like they usually did but by each kissing the corner of her mouth.

They wished her "sweet dreams" with a cheeky grin on their faces before drifting off to sleep leaving Mai to stew over it through out the night like she usually did whenever they did something new. The two men had the discussed proceeding with the new step as Mai was cooking dinner and they knew that if Mai followed her usual cycle, she'd say nothing in the morning and they would be able to get away with doing it on a regular basis. They had been working on getting her to accept their affections since they had started this unusual 3 way relationship with Mai.

...

Luck was with them the next morning. The dark spirit had been trapped in the circle wards. Mai prepared breakfast while John got ready and performed an exorcism. It wasn't a particularly difficult one. The spirit had nowhere else to go and disappeared in a puff of dark grey smoke.

It was after breakfast and while they were packing up the equipment that Mai stopped suddenly. Monk was the only one in the room with her at the time.

"Bou-san, come with me. I need your help."

Mai ran out of the room and out the back door heading for a corner of the yard hidden by heavy bush. Monk following closely behind. She got Monk to help her cut back the bush until they could get into the corner and found an old trap door bolted with a heavy and thick padlock. Mai sent a message to Lin and Oliver through her shiki about what they had found and directed Monk to breaking open the trap door. They found a large pit underneath filled with children's bones.

Monk had to step aside briefly while he fought the urge to be sick. Mai phoned the local police precinct, giving her badge number and explaining what they'd found.

It was several hours later before the SPR team were allowed to leave. Oliver, Lin and Mai being the last to leave once Mai promised to submit a formal report once she was back in her own precinct. They didn't question the weird circumstances of how Mai had found the children's bones or the reason SPR were even there in the first place. Mai's skills were well known throughout the police network of Japan. This was not the first time she had brought such a case to them.


	22. Chapter 22 - Moving In

True to Oliver's decision during the clown house case, he and Lin sat down with Mai only a couple of days later to broach the idea of her moving in with them permanently. The two men had discussed it together first before talking to Mai. They knew that they had to be a united front when convincing her to do anything.

Mai listened to their request and the reasoning behind it quietly. In some ways she had been expecting this. The three of them hadn't really been separated much since the succubi case. Other than when she went to work on her cold cases or on her email requests, Mai was aware her every spare moment had somehow been taken up by these two men regardless of whether she was willing to be in a relationship or not.

At this point, Mai agreed that it was a waste of time and finances to have two separate residences. She also agreed that for all intents and purposes they had formed a relationship of some kind, despite her not having been interested in being in one. Mai had been aware of the transition in the way the two men interacted with her and how they were slowly but surely turning less innocent seeming and more deliberately affectionate and slightly sexual. If she moved in with them, she could more than likely assume that they would be pushing for a much less platonic relationship than they already had.

"If I agree to this, how would this work? Obviously it would make more sense to move in to your apartment above SPR rather than into my apartment. Would I have my own room or are the three of us going to move into one bedroom?"

Lin and Oliver thought about it for a moment.

"What if we shared a bedroom and converted the other rooms and the study into personal work spaces?" Lin suggested.

"I'd be happy with that. Although I'd like to get a bigger bed for the three of us to share, if that's the case?" Oliver agreed.

Mai thought it over. It made sense although she was still a little reluctant. She could rent out her apartment and that way it would be available should things not work out.

"All right. I'll move in with you. But I expect you both to help with the house work. I'm not a maid and I refuse to do it all simply because I'm the female in this Scenario. And I'm not selling my apartment. I'll rent it out."

Lin and Oliver agreed quickly. They were more than happy to do their share of the house work if it meant getting their way in Mai officially living with them.

The next few days were spent moving Mai in and rearranging the apartment to work for the three of them living together. Oliver bought a brand new king sized bed for the bedroom they would share.

Mai brought little with her. Just her laptop, the contents of her wardrobe, her books and a few personal and sentimental paraphernalia such as photos. The rest was left for the tenants she had arranged to rent her apartment. She bought a brand new desk set for her personal work room as well as a matching couch, bookshelf and rug. She was happy with the stylish simplicity of the room. Her books and personal paraphernalia were spread out over the desk and bookshelf.

Mai cooked dinner that night. Oliver washed the dishes afterwards and Lin dried and put them away. They settled into the lounge with some work or books and spent a few hours in comfortable silence before they mutually decided it was bed time.

As usual Mai settled into the center of the bed with the two men on either side. The gentle kisses on the corner of her mouth moved to the center of her lips that night. Oliver first, then Lin. Mai didn't bother to stew over it. She had been expecting something along those lines to happen now that she had officially moved in and accepted their strange relationship. She merely shrugged and settled down to sleep, Oliver and Lin following suit quickly with a happy smile.

It was Mai's turn to surprise them in the morning after breakfast when she kissed their cheeks when she left for work instead of them kissing hers. It was the first time she had willingly kissed them of her own accord and she had managed to shock them enough that they didn't even get the chance to try and kiss her goodbye. Mai walked out the door with her own smirk on her face at having one upped the two men for a change.

...

Things progressed flowed smoothly for the next few days. The three of them settling into a happy routine with Gene often joining them in the evenings. It was quite late on one such evening that Oliver received a video call from his mother. Neither men had informed Luella or Martin about the new living arrangement so it was a huge surprise to Luella when not only Oliver but Gene answered the video call.

 ** _"Noll! Gene! But how did this come about? Did Mai solidify you again Gene?"_**

 ** _"I did."_** Mai replied from out of sight of the camera.

" ** _Oh, Mai, are you there now? But it's late there now, is it not?"_**

 ** _"Yes, it's just after 10 pm, Mother."_** Oliver replied.

It was obvious to Gene that their mother was curious about why Mai was there so late at night so he told her cheekily with a grin.

 ** _"Mai lives here now Mother. She moved in over a week ago. She allows me to hang out with the threesome most nights. "_**

Oliver glared at his twin.

 ** _"That can easily be changed, idiot brother."_**

 ** _"Idiot scientist."_**

 ** _"Idiot medium."_**

 ** _"Oh leave him alone, Naru. It's your own fault for not telling your mother sooner. You can hardly blame a perpetual teen for taking advantage of the situation."_**

Mai interrupted the twin's glaring contest with an amused tone since Luella could only watch her son's bickering in shocked silence as she processed what Gene had told her.

 ** _"Wait. Let me get this straight. Mai lives there now? But what's this about a threesome?"_**

Oliver sighed. **_"It's a little complicated Mother but basically Lin, Mai and I are in a relationship. It works for us so leave it alone."_**

 ** _"How long has this relationship been going on?"_**

 ** _"Unofficially long enough for it to be no one's business but our own. Officially, for just over a week as Gene has already said."_**

 ** _"Goodness, Noll, I never expected you to ever get in an official relationship let alone one of this kind. But you are an adult and it is your decision so as long as you are happy, I am."_**

 ** _"Thank you Mother."_** Oliver responded sarcastically. **_"Was there a reason for your call or is this purely a social chit chat?"_**

 ** _"Oh, I wanted to let you know that your father and I were planning on a visit next month. I was planning on bringing a friend's daughter with me, but I think I'll leave her behind now."_**

 ** _"Please do leave her behind. I have no need of your matchmaking. I never have."_**

There was a long suffering tone in Oliver's voice alerting Mai that he'd had enough.

 ** _"Mrs Davis, please let us know when Mr Davis and yourself are arriving and if there is anything especially you want to do while you are here. I'll try and organise it for you. I believe our annual police charity ball is being held next month. Shall I arrange some tickets for you both?"_**

Mai's distraction worked.

 ** _"Oh Mai, that sounds lovely. Please arrange those tickets for us. You'll have to allow me to shout you to a session at the beautiful salon beforehand to thank you."_**

 ** _"I look forward to it, Mrs Davis."_** Only the twins and Lin saw the slight grimace on Mai's face since she wasn't in view of the camera.

 ** _"Oh, Luella, please, and my husband is Martin."_**

 ** _"Luella, then."_**

Gene took over the conversation then, telling his mother all about the last two big cases that SPR had closed since she was last here. Oliver, Mai and Lin adding occasional commentary as needed.

 ** _"I'm sorry, Luella, I'm heading off to bed now. I have a new case to work on in the morning and I need a clear head to do so. Goodnight."_**

Mai gave her apologies to the twin's mother as she kissed Oliver and Lin on the cheek and patted Gene's head as she passed by and headed to bed.

Luella watched her silently but approval could be seen on her face as she did so. Regardless of their strange relationship it was apparent from their interactions just how natural it was for the three of them. Even Gene fit in there somehow although not in the same level as the other two men.

The other two quickly following suit shortly after as Gene's two hour limit ended and he faded away. Mai was already sound asleep as the other two men joined her in bed.


	23. Chapter 23 - Taking The Next Step

Two weeks had passed since Luella's video call. Luella and Martin Davis were due to arrive at the end of the week. Mai had booked them into a hotel nearby since they no longer had a spare bedroom and her apartment was rented out.

The irregulars had stopped by the office for a casual chat at the end of the day. Treating it like the cafe Oliver repeatedly told them it wasn't. So they were treated to the rare sight of Mai coming home from work early. No one had told them that Mai had moved in with Lin and Oliver, so they assumed that she was dropping in for chat like the rest of them. Mai certainly did come into the office where she greeted the irregulars but they were then interested to see Mai add a kiss each for Lin and Oliver.

"How was your missing persons case?" Oliver asked Mai.

"We found the girl but getting her out was a little messy. Please excuse me everyone. I'm heading up for a shower. Don't be too long chatting, you two. Dinner will only be an hour away and you know Luella is calling to talk to you and Gene tonight."

Mai waved to the others before heading out the door and up the stairs to the apartment.

"Is she staying the night tonight? You should have told us. We would have cleared out ages ago." Monk said.

"If only you would. But no, she isn't staying the night." Oliver snarked.

"Mai lives here now." Lin explained since Oliver had no intention in doing to. "She has been for almost a month now."

For once Masako kept her jealousy quiet. She had realised she had no hope during the clown house case and was trying to move on. Still she was surprised that the girl who had held everyone at arms length only 2 months prior had progressed so far as to get into a relationship with two men enough to actually move in with them.

"Honestly, how does that relationship work?" Ayako asked. "Are you two usually attracted to the same women?"

"We never were in the past." Oliver shrugged.

"There is just something about Mai." Lin added.

"You don't get jealous of each other over her at all?" Yasuhara asked.

"Mai treats us equally the same. There is nothing for us to get jealous over." Oliver stated.

"She's worth us sharing. It works for us." Lin added.

"If it makes you happy I guess." John said.

"It does." Lin and Oliver said together.

The conversation moved on after that and the irregulars began to leave for their own respective homes once Mai sent Aki to alert Lin that dinner was 5 minutes away. The two men climbed the stairs eager to dig into whatever that delicious smell was that had been drifting down to them for the last 20 minutes.

Gene was already sitting in his usual chair at the table waiting, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. For a ghost, he sure loved to eat. Lin and Oliver were quick to join him there as Mai began bringing out the dishes.

Dinner was a quiet and happy meal. Luella's video call both humorous and frustrating depending on whose perspective you took it from. It wasn't long before Luella had finally hung up and Gene had faded back to his normal invisible self. Mai soon decided it was bed time for her and Lin and Oliver were quick to follow behind her. They had decided that it was time to introduce something more intimate to Mai that night and they didn't want her falling asleep beforehand.

Mai was already in a short spaghetti strap nightie. She had been since her shower although she'd had a robe over it during dinner and Luella's call. So she read a book while waiting for the guys to join her. There were two bathrooms in the apartment so Lin took one while Oliver took the other. Both men climbed into their respective sides of the bed as Mai sent her book to the dressing table across the room with her PK. They had gotten used to Mai doing that when it was just them. It was easier than her trying to climb over one of them to get out of bed.

Mai was intrigued by the look on both men's faces. If she read them right, they were about to try something new. So far they had moved from a light kiss on the lips to actual kissing with tongue. Usually while one was kissing her lips the other was nibbling her neck and then they'd swap over. Lately both of their hands had started running up and down her torso while they kissed her. She wasn't sure what they had planned next for that night.

It began the way it usually did. One of them devouring her mouth while the other devoured her neck. Their hands ran up and down her torso over her nightie before they swapped over. This time however their hands wandered down and under her nightie before sneaking back up to her breasts. They each massaged a breast before pinching her nipples gently.

Both men worked their mouths down to their respective breast pulling Mai's nightie down as they went. While the hands that had been fondling her breasts now worked their way down to her lower body. As their mouths worked on her breasts, they ran a finger each gently over her pantie covered nether lips under the now slightly dampened material. They then slipped those fingers under the material to dip into the moisture, pumping them in and out, before adding a second finger each and then a third one to stretch her accordingly.

Mai was panting quite hard by now as both men pushed her gently onto her back. Oliver moved his kisses back up to her mouth and his hands to both breasts while Lin moved his kisses down over her body to her nether lips where he worked her with both his lips and hands. Mai was screaming in pleasure by the time he was done. Then in their usual pattern, the two men swapped places. Mai could taste herself on Lin's lips as Oliver feasted on her from below.

Both men were hard by Mai's second release and they silently agreed with a look to take it to the final step while she was willing. Lifting Mai slightly onto her hands and knees with her knees wide enough apart for Oliver to slide onto his back under her and between her legs while Lin hovered over her back. They positioned themselves at her entrance, both cocks touching, before entering her swiftly and smoothly at the same time.

They stilled while Mai got used to the feeling of them both filling her and then they moved at the same time. Their mouths running up and down either side of her neck and her shoulders as they pumped in and out of her. When Mai came once more before the two men were ready for their own release. Lin snaked a hand down between Mai's legs to play with her clit and dragging a fourth orgasm out of her which in turn dragged their own release out of the two men.

They pulled out of her gently as Mai then collapsed on top of Oliver. She had no words and could only kiss the two men softly after she'd recovered enough to move before falling back into her spot on the bed and drifting into a happy sleep.

Both men were very satisfied with the progress they had made with Mai that night and both fell asleep with a possessive arm each around Mai's waist and a leg each over one of hers.


	24. Chapter 24 - Nightmares

_Mai opened her eyes. The sound of dripping could be heard somewhere to her left. She was in some sort of basement. Her arms were restrained behind her, handcuffed to some pipe at her back. Her body felt sore. Through the ripped clothing she could see bruises on her thighs, arms and tummy. It was the area between her legs that hurt the most. Like she had been raped more than once already. She knew that feeling. She had lived it before._

 _"Good morning Mai. I'm glad you're finally awake. It's not as fun taking you while you sleep."_

 _Mai stiffened. She knew that voice. She had killed the owner of that voice in the explosion caused by her powers. How was she with him now? Was it his spirit?_

 _"I've missed you Mai. The other girls I've had over the years don't compare to your sweet taste and delectable body. You're irreplaceable and I'm not letting you leave again. You're mine forever now."_

 _If Mai could have screamed, she would have. But a dirty rag stuffed into her mouth and what appeared to be tape muffled any sound she made. Her frightened body shook and tears ran down her cheeks as he grabbed her ankles and pulled her legs towards him. He was already naked and hard when he painfully and roughly inserted himself inside her. Thrusting himself again and again and again with no relief in sight._

It was the bed shaking violently that woke up the two men sleeping beside Mai. Lin was startled to see both his and Mai's shiki touching her wherever they could reach to drain her power and emotions as much as possible. Looking around the room Oliver could see small items that had already toppled over. Glancing back at Mai both men were shocked to see tears running down her face.

"Mai. Mai, wake up sweetheart. Wake up."

Lin gently shook her shoulder.

"Wake up Mai. You're safe. You're at home with us. Wake up please love."

Oliver ran his hands soothingly over her hair and face.

Both men were worried. She'd never had such an emotionally violent dream before in their presence. They were relieved when Mai's eyes shot with a strangled scream. Their relief was shortlived when Mai sat up and curled into a ball, sobbing. Every time they reached out to touch her to offer comfort they were met with a jerking motion to remove it.

It took over an hour and two sweetened teas to calm Mai down to get any information out of her. Oliver was loath to ask her but they needed to know what her dream involved.

"Mai, love, what did you see?"

It took so long for Mai to answer that he thought she was going to ignore the question like she had everything else they had said for the last hour. When she finally answered her voice was shaky and so quiet both men had to strain their ears to hear her.

"He's back, Naru. The man who took me is back."

Nobody slept the rest of that night.

The dreams did not stop and they had an adverse affect on Mai. She jumped and jerked away from Oliver and Lin every time they tried to touch her. It was affecting their sleep and the way the three of them interacted. Even Gene couldn't go near Mai without her reacting. Mai couldn't even attempt to go to work in this state and had taken the time off.

It was the second afternoon after the initial nightmare. Mai was hiding in her office in their apartment staring blankly at a wall when Lin and Oliver knocked on her open door.

Mai stared at them and sighed.

"Come in, sit down. I guess it's time to talk."

Lin and Oliver entered and sat down in the comfy armchairs that Mai had placed in front of her desk. Both men carried a cup of tea and Lin carried a second one that he placed in front of Mai.

"Mai, sweetheart, are the dreams precog or memory?" Lin asked.

"Precog. He specifically said he 'missed me' and that none of the other girls compared to me."

"Damn. Any idea on time frame?" Oliver asked frowning.

"Not sure. Maybe a month before I'm taken. I don't know what triggers it yet. It could be an SPR case or one of my private ones. It might even occur during one of my cold case investigations. In the meantime, your parents are due in a few days. I'd really like to not be jumping every time you guys touch me when they're here."

"I'm sure they would understand either way but what do you want to do about the whole situation?" Oliver asked.

"I don't know. Last time it took months for me to stop jumping every time Noromi came near me. I'd really like to not take so long this time."

"Maybe we need to set aside times in the day where we just touch you for long periods at a time to get you used to it again?" Lin suggested.

"Well if we do that then maybe it needs to be mutual with Mai touching us in return too." Oliver added.

"OK. I can try. Do you want to start this now?" Mai agreed.

"Shall we go into the lounge? We can use the couch and watch television to try and distract you from jumping too much." Lin suggested.

Mai was tense and feeling very awkward on the couch sitting between the two men pressed up against her. They each had a hand on a shoulder and their other hand rested on her lap. They had placed her hands between each of their thighs so that she couldn't pull them away.

It took her a while to relax enough to pay attention to the historical drama playing on the television in front of her. The slightest movement had her jumping. When the hands on her lap started moving in soothing circles she jumped but didn't jerk away. When the ones on her shoulders began stroking her back up and down gently, she stiffened but didn't jump.

It was when the hands on her legs began to trail up her thighs that they reached her breaking point. She froze and the two men pulled the hands away from her legs and placed them around her waist in a gentle hug.

"Well done, sweetheart." Lin acknowledged her progress. It was more than he thought they would get in the first session. Oliver squeezed her shoulder in agreement. They kept contact Mai until the end of the historical drama and then Mai got up to start dinner.

They had a second session that night in bed. Rather than letting Mai go to bed by herself and fall asleep first then joining her later as they had been for the last couple of nights, they joined her in bed and held deliberately held her while she tried to calm down and fall asleep in their arms.

The next morning they refused to let Mai leave the bed without more daring touching and kisses to both cheek and mouth. She panicked a little during that session but they continued patiently until she calmed down and relaxed. Once she had relaxed enough to accept their kisses without panicking and even return one of her own, they let her go.

Their fourth session began after breakfast and included Gene. It involved hugging from all three of them. Both all at once and individually. Lin and Oliver added kisses to their hugs. Gene added the occasional pat to the head. When Mai could return the hugs, kisses and pats on the head in a relaxed way, the session was ended.

The sixth session took place just after lunch and involved just Lin and Oliver hugging Mai tightly between them. The only difference this time was that they were stripped down to their underwear and Mai was fully clothed. It took Mai quite a while to calm down enough to relax.

The session before dinner had Mai stripped down to her underwear as well. It took nearly as long for her to calm down to a relaxed state during that session also.

The bedtime session removed even the underwear of all three participants and cuddling in bed with the occasional kiss or touch. Neither man pushed for anything more sexual than that.

The next morning involved more naked touching but only to the extent to give Mai pleasure. They restrained themselves from having their own.

By that night Mai was able to engage in sex with the two men without flinching in anyway or showing any signs of distress.

By the time Oliver's parents had arrived the following afternoon, Mai was almost back to normal and able to engage in a social setting with the irregulars in the SPR office without any of them knowing anything had been wrong in the first place.

If only the dreams would stop.


	25. Chapter 25 - The Davis' Visit

**A/N - Hi everyone. Sorry for not updating in such a long time. Had a slight writer's block mixed with busy family life but here is a new chapter finally up for you all.** **There will probably only be another 4 or 5 chapters to go before this book is finished. I'll try not to leave you all hanging too long for them.** **Enjoy the chapter and I'll see you again soon!** **...**

The arrival of Oliver's parents began smoothly. Oliver, Lin and Mai picked them from the airport, checked them into their hotel and brought them back to their apartment in the SPR building for a catch up and dinner. Mai solidified Gene to the enjoyment of Luella and Martin and the apartment was rather noisier than it was usually. Lin dropped them back to the hotel quite late that night.

The next two weeks followed a similar pattern. One of the three would pick up Luella and Martin after breakfast for whatever activity was planned that day. The days that Mai participated in usually involved a lot of shopping with a hyped up Luella and a resigned Martin trailing behind laiden with heavy bags. On other days Luella dragged Mai to the spa for pampering and gossip while Martin escaped to the SPR office with Oliver and Lin.

Their evenings were spent relaxing in the apartment with Gene while Mai cooked dinner. Discussions ranged from SPR cases to some of Mai's private email ones and to the wide range of Mai's powers before Lin or Oliver dropped them back to their hotel. Martin managed to convince Mai to transfer him through the astral realm one evening which led to Luella, Lin and Gene to beg for a turn as well.

...

The police charity ball took place at the end of the second week of their visit. Luella dragged Mai to a salon to get their hair and makeup done in the early afternoon of the day of the ball before shutting themselves into Mai's work room to finish getting ready. Luella refused to let the men see Mai before it was time to leave and all they got to see of Mai's outfit when they left was Mai's long black evening cloak. The only clue they had to her dress was the sliver of deep blue that peeked out from the bottom of her cloak as she walked and the strappy gold heels that flashed beneath that.

On arriving at the hotel that the ball was being held, Luella and Mai ducked into the designated cloak room to check in their cloaks and bags. Luella left the cloak room first with a massive smile and a giggle when the jaws of Lin and Oliver dropped at the sight of Mai behind her.

Mai's dress consisted of a tight strapless corset style bodice which boosted Mai's chest and hinted heavily at her cleavage. The tight bodice flowed easily into a heavy full skirt that lightly skimmed her modest hips and fell to her ankles. Intricate gold embroidery shimmered in the lighting and only enhanced the deep blue colour of her dress. A delicate gold chain ending in a delicate flower made of sapphires floated around Mai's neck. Matching earrings dangled from her ears and a sapphire tennis bracelet sparkled from her left wrist. Smokey eye shadow and a matt red lipstick completed the look.

Mai smirked as she floated between them gently closing their mouths as she passed. **_"You'll catch flies like that"_ **came her amused voice as she headed to the large double doors where the ballroom was located. Oliver and Lin hurried after her in a daze while Martin and Luella followed in a relaxed pace.

The night was spent introducing her coworkers to her romantic partners and the Davis' and swirling between Oliver's arms and Lin's arms with the occasional dance with Martin. If her coworkers were curious about the strange 3 way relationship that Mai was involved in, they knew better than to bring it up in her presence. By the time Lin had dropped the Davis' off at their hotel for the night, Mai was already drifting off to sleep with her head dropping onto Oliver's shoulder in the back seat. Luella snapped a quick photo with her phone camera with a smile before leaving the car.

By this time of their visit her phone was full of sweet little moments like this one, many often featuring either or both of her twin sons and some with Lin. There was an especially cute photo of Mai leaning over Gene sitting on her office chair in from of her laptop, with her arms over his shoulders while Lin and Oliver stood behind her. All four could be seen laughing at some silly video that Gene had found on the internet. Luella considered that one to be one of her favourites and couldn't wait to print it out and frame it when they got home to England.

...

The rest of the visit passed much like the first half and by the time Mai, Oliver and Lin saw them off at the airport departure gates, Luella and Martin were already planning their next visit back to Japan. Luella was in tears and clinging tightly to Mai before Martin was able to pull her away and through the departure gates for their long flight home.

The three people left behind sighed in relief before heading back to their car, both men with an arm around Mai's waist. As much as they had enjoyed the Davis' visit, they were relieved to get back to their normal much quieter routine.

The only negative element of the entire month was that Mai's nightmares were no longer limited to the night. Day time visions had gotten more frequent as the month had past. The time of the event occurring was drawing near.


	26. Chapter 26 - Mai Disappears

**A/N - Here is a new chapter for you all. Enjoy!**

It was less than a week after Martin and Luella had left when Mai opened an email from Haru Takiana one evening asking for help with a missing person's case. Looking at the picture of the missing girl, Mai was shocked to see a close resemblance to her teenaged self. Short brown hair and large brown eyes with a wide smile reflected back at her. Curious, Mai began reading what information Takiana had put in the email about the case before sending him a reply email saying she'll come in to look over the case in the morning. The girl had already been missing for a month and from past experience, Mai knew that the likelihood of the girl still being alive was rare. They were most likely looking for a body, as sad as the situation was. One more night wouldn't make any difference to the unfortunate girl.

...

The next morning found Mai in a state of minor shock as she sat in Takiana's chair reviewing the file on the missing girl. Kana Fuwa was 18 and had been sitting on her own. In the month leading up to her disappearance, she had filed a police report related to stalking. Someone had been breaking into her apartment, moving Items around and her boyfriend's photo was often found lying flat down before it went missing only to be found in the toilet tank later. For Mai, this story was far too familiar for her liking.

"I've missed you Mai. The other girls I've had over the years don't compare to your sweet taste and delectable body. You're irreplaceable and I'm not letting you leave again. You're mine forever now."

The words of that repeated nightmare resounded once more in her head. **Other girls.** **..** Mai felt nauseated. Swiftly turning to Takiana's computer and logging into the missing person's database, she did a quick search of girls aged 15 to 20 matching her own description dating as far back as 9 years. Narrowing the search furtfurther she specified girls who had been living alone at the time of their disappearance and had complained of stalking in the month prior. Three other girls met the parameters of her search. They had yet to be found. Mai ran for the woman's toilet with a hand over her mouth and 10 very worried shiki trailing behind her.

Takiana arrived that morning as a pale faced Mai finished printing out the results of her research. His own face paled when he reviewed the other missing girls files that Mai placed before him. She also told him a little of her own experience and how the cases were too similar to her own kidnapping. It was the first he even knew that she'd been kidnapped as a teen and he was even more surprised to learn she'd managed to survive the ordeal. He listened quietly when she said this was most likely a paranormal case as the original perpetrator was dead and none of her visions showed a copycat. It wasn't Takiana's first time hearing that such cases were caused by paranormal means. That was how they had began working with each other after all and why he knew she had visions to start with.

Working together, both Mai and Takiana were surprised and frightened to learn that the apartment building that Mai had originally spent two months held in the basement of before she destroyed it with her power explosion, had been rebuilt not even a year after.

"I hate to say it, but I'm pretty sure we need to go to this apartment building and explore the basement." Mai said reluctantly, slumping back in her chair. Takiana had no choice but to agree. He filed for a search warrant while Mai sent Aki to Lin letting him know she'd probably be late home that night due to the missing person's case. She neglected to tell him the relevance of the missing girl in relation to her visions of the past month. She didn't want to worry him or Oliver.

Three hours later, Mai along with Takiana and his team of 5 policemen who worked in the missing person's department entered the apartment building listed on the search warrant.

Mai shivered as she looked around the front foyer of the apartment building. She had no idea if it looked the same as the original one, having been unconscious the first time she'd been there during her kidnapping 9 years before and it was already in ruins when the rescue team had evacuated her afterwards. But the inside of the building felt dark and oppressive despite the light creamy coloured walls and mint green carpets.

The apartment manager was not happy about the search warrant that Takiana had handed him to search the basement. Very reluctantly he showed them the way to stairs that led to the basement. There was no elevator that went down to it and some of the policemen on the search team grumbled a little. Mai quietly followed behind them. She was in no hurry to reach that basement. The oppressive feeling only grew stronger as they got further down.

Finally, the group reached the basement floor. At first glance nothing seemed out of place but Mai could feel something watching her from a dark corner at the other side of the room. Shivering, she closed her eyes and let her senses expand over the basement floor. In the opposite corner from the creepy one she felt four vague spirits hiding. Opening her eyes she looked in the direction of the spirits. The corner was badly lit and held a lot of boxes.

Ignoring the complaints of the apartment manager, Mai walked over to the corner with the spirits and began removing some of the boxes. Takiana soon joined her, followed by the others. None of them questioned Mai. Like Takiana, they had all been on a case with her when she used her powers to help find someone.

Eventually they cleared a path to the back wall where they found an almost empty space. Almost empty but not completely. The partly decomposed body of a naked teenaged girl lay on top of a pile of dry yellowed bones. Most likely the other victims of the paranormal kidnapping. There were two more skulls in the pile than the reports that Mai had found suggested there would be. She assumed they were girls that no one had bothered to report missing.

It took several hours before the bodies had been photographed, evidence collected and paperwork completed. The entire process was completed under the watchful eyes of whatever the dark entity was that was staring at them from the opposite corner. Mai refused to go anywhere near it and it didn't move any closer than it already was. She told Takiana that she'd pass the paranormal clean up to SPR to deal with once they had finished the police side of things.

It was an extremely tired Mai who climbed out of her car at the SPR building around 11 pm that night and began trudging to the front door. She could see a light on in the lounge of their apartment on the top floor and the thought of curling up in bed with the two men waiting for her there made her smile. She had just unlocked the building door when everything went dark.

...

Oliver and Lin were getting worried. Mai said she'd be late but it was now reaching 1 am and there was still no sign of her coming home. Lin's shiki were flitting around in a panic since they couldn't find any of Mai's shiki and Mai's cell phone kept going to voicemail. Even Gene was unable to find any sign of Mai's spirit in the astral plane. All they knew was that she was working on a missing person's case and it seemed to be taking longer than she'd planned.

The time passed slowly. 2 am. 3 am. 4 am. The two men paced the living room floor frantically. Not even a cup of tea could calm them down now. 5 am. 6 am. 7 am. 8 am. Finally it was 9 am when they knew that Haru Takiana would usually be in his office. Putting the phone on speaker they phoned Takiana to ask if Mai was still at the station working on their missing person's case. All three men went pale when Takiana told them that they had finished up just after 10:30 pm and that Mai had been heading straight home afterwards.

"We're on our way to the station. Please pull out all information relating to the case you and Mai were working on." Oliver's voice was tense with fear despite his calm tone.

He and Lin were quick to gather their things and head downstairs to the front door only to stop in shock when they realised that the door was ajar. Mai's key still sitting in the lock. Her handbag dropped carelessly outside. Oliver began to take photos of Mai's things while Lin phoned back Haru Takiana.

"Takiana-san, it's Lin. I think you had better come here with a team. We've found Mai's disappearance point. She was taken from outside the building we live in. Her key is still in the lock, the door was left open and her bag was left dropped on the ground. No other sign of a struggle."


	27. Chapter 27 - Ending The Nightmare

**A/N - second to last chapter for this story. Next chapter will be the epilogue. Still I have the beginnings of a new story running around in my head so keep an eye out for that one too.**

 **CaitHawke4Ever - I particularly liked her dress too. It was so out of the norm for what they usually saw her wear both in the past and the current that the shock value was worth seeing. I bet Luella just wished she'd had her phone out at that point to capture it!** **The spirit will certainly be regretting his choices by the time Mai is rescued, that's for sure.**

 **Joys - The team will certainly need to find her fast. That spirit doesn't muck around. I hope this chapter is everything you hoped it would be.**

 **...**

Takiana's team was fast to respond to Lin's phone call. Mai was a fellow detective and one who worked closely with them quite often, even if she was officially in a different department. Despite the fast response, it still took several hours for the initial investigation into Mai's disappearance to be processed. Unfortunately for them, there was no physical evidence of anyone else being immediately on the scene other than Lin, Oliver and Mai. For Lin and Oliver this clearly indicated supernatural means rather than a human attacker.

When Oliver demanded to see the case file that Mai and Takiana were working on earlier that day, Takiana was reluctant but cooperated. To say that neither Lin nor Oliver were happy once they made the connection between the case file and Mai's original abduction from years earlier was putting it lightly. Especially considering her recent dreams. In fact both were angry that Mai had hidden that information from them when letting them know that she'd be late that night. Lin had to slap Oliver twice to shock him out of almost losing control of his pk when they'd realised who, or rather what, had taken Mai.

The pair of them began making phone calls to the SPR team the minute they received the address of the building that Mai had found the bodies earlier. While they were doing that, Takiana made a phone call to the apartment building manager to let him know that they'd be heading back almost immediately.

Nearly 20 minutes later, as the sun was rising in the early hours of the morning, both the missing persons team as well as the entire SPR team were gathering at the front door of the apartment building getting ready to head in. Takigawa, Ayako and John were already in their ceremonial robes and holding the equipment required for exorcism.

 ** _Some time earlier_** ** _..._**

Mai opened her eyes. The sound of dripping could be heard somewhere to her left. She was in the basement that her and Takiana had been in earlier although in a completely different corner to where the bodies were found. Her arms were restrained behind her, handcuffed to a pipe at her back. Her body felt sore. She could see bruises on her thighs, arms and tummy through her ripped clothing. Like in her dreams it was the area between her legs that hurt the most. Obviously she had been raped more than once already while still unconscious. She knew that feeling. She had not only lived it before, she'd been dreaming of this moment for the last month. Her nightmare was now taking place as reality.

"Good morning Mai. I'm glad you're finally awake. It's not as fun taking you while you sleep."

Mai stiffened. The shock of hearing his voice again kept her from struggling with her restraints. It had been bad enough hearing it in her dreams. Hearing it now was making her panic.

"I've missed you Mai. The other girls I've had over the years don't compare to your sweet taste and delectable body. You're irreplaceable and I'm not letting you leave again. You're mine forever now."

If Mai could have screamed, she would have. Just like her dream, a dirty rag was stuffed into her mouth and tape muffled any sound she made. Her frightened body shook and tears ran down her cheeks as the now obviously spirit-turned-demon grabbed her ankles and pulled her legs towards him. His rotting-like body was already naked and hard when he painfully and roughly inserted himself inside her and began thrusting. Unnoticed by either of them, items around the basement began shaking and rising into the air before being thrown all around them.

It seemed like hours later when Mai finally calmed herself down during a break of one of his attacks to remember her shiki and her powers. She wasn't helpless anymore. While she couldn't whistle for them, she could call them in her mind and so she did so. When they appeared, they were so agitated and angry that she had a hard time trying to keep them restrained. When she could finally get them to listen to instructions, they almost rushed to follow orders.

The first thing she had them do was create a barrier around her preventing the demon from touching her. He grew angry at that and attacked the barrier viciously. While he was attacking the barrier, Mai had her shiki set up another barrier around him, trapping him inside. That made his tantrum worse.

Slowly, carefully, she directed her pk-st into unlocking the handcuffs that restrained her and held her to the pipe and then sat up, rubbing her wrists. Mai didn't bother trying to stand. She knew her legs had no strength right then to hold her. Instead she pulled at the tape covering her mouth until it came off and spit out the rag. Then with deadly focused eyes glaring at the tantruming demon, Mai directed her shiki to attack it, while she recited the demon exorcism spells that she'd begun learning over the years after receiving the odd case involving them.

By the time the SPR team and the missing persons team had clattered down the stairs and into the basement prepared to do battle, it was all over.

"Oh, hey guys, you're late, " was all Mai could say before she collapsed, unconscious. Oliver and Lin were across the room and managing to grab her just before her head could hit the concrete floor.


	28. Chapter 28 - Epilogue

**A/N - last chapter for this story. It's been slow going but I'm rather proud of it. As stated in the previous chapter I do have the idea for a new story running around. Once this is done I plan to start getting my ideas down on paper and forming a proper story line to follow. Hopefully I'll get the first chapter or two up by the end of the weekend. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the story ending for Forgiving The Past. See you next story!**

Mai could feel herself drifting in and out of consciousness over the next few days. She remembered brief moments of others talking in a panicked tone, being transported in what was obviously an ambulance presumably to the hospital, medical personnel snapping out orders to other medical personnel, someone crying, quiet calm voices who talked softly and beeping. Lots of beeping. Some moments felt longer than others. The rest of the time was pure blissful blankness while her body healed itself at a much faster rate than the doctors had anticipated.

By the time the ambulance had pulled into the emergency entrance, Mai's body had already healed most of the cuts and bruising that had been there initially. The only sign they had existed were the torn clothing and specks of blood covering both the clothes and newly healed skin. Other than ordering a few scans and inserting an iv line to keep her hydrated there wasn't much more that the doctors could do. Even swabbing for seman did no good since the attacker was of supernatural means. There was no DNA to find and her body healed too fast to find any other remaining signs of rape. All that was left was to wait for Mai to wake up and deal with her post-trauma reactions.

The room was quiet when Mai finally did open her eyes to observe her surroundings. Lin and Oliver sat quietly in a chair on either side of Mai's bed, each holding a hand gently while reading with their other hand. Luella, was sitting in a corner flipping through a magazine. Martin sat beside her flipping through what appeared to be case files. **They must have flown back to Japan as soon as Oliver told them I was hospital after an attack.** Mai felt her heart warm at that thought. The situation was so different from the last time she woke up after her original kidnapping.

She vaguely remembered seeing everyone enter the basement before she fell unconscious this time. They had been prepared to come save her unlike last time. **Maybe everyone does care?** Something in her heart seemed to relax a little bit. She wasn't alone this time. She had people who cared this time. People who came to save her this time. Mai smiled a little thinking that.

Luella chose that moment to glance up and quickly jumped up when she realised Mai was awake. **"Mai! Thank goodness! You've been asleep for three days!"**

Luella's exclamation alerted the others to Mai's alertness and the next thing Mai knew Lin and Oliver had almost thrown themselves at her in happiness. Mai let a small giggle out as she patted the back of their heads to console them. **"I'm awake now. It's OK. I'm fine. Or I will be."**

Once the hysteria had calmed down, the lectures followed, mostly from Oliver with Lin adding in the odd sentence. When the rest of the SPR team began to trickle into her hospital room, the cycle began again. Hugging, crying and then the lectures. Through out it all, Mai sat quietly, listening. It was all so different to last time. No one hugged her back then. No one cried. No one yelled. No one cared. So listening to everyone's heart-filled lectures, Mai no longer felt alone.

She had her family back. She could finally begin to forgive the past.

...

It took a few months for things to get back to how they had been before Mai's attack. The post trauma symptoms that Mai had struggled with last time were lessened this time around. Having her family around to support her recovery helped.

Luella and Martin rented an apartment nearby and Luella often held a therapy session with Mai to help her talk out her experiences. It brought the two women even closer together than they had been before. Sometimes the therapy sessions included Lin and Oliver. It helped them to understand what Mai went through and was still working through. Mai took leave from her detective work while working through her recovery. They only flew back to England once Mai was cleared to work again and fully recovered mentally and emotionally.

Six months after Mai was cleared to go back to work, she woke up nauseated. A worried Lin made her some toast to nibble on while Oliver made her tea. It was thankfully the weekend. None of them had work that day so the men opted to make Mai rest in bed. She felt better by the afternoon, however and insisted on getting up then. It happened again the following day and when it occurred a third time on the Monday, Oliver insisted on her going to see the doctor. The two men were worried. Mai just doesn't get sick.

The doctor took bloods and a urine test and then booked her for scan. By this time Mai had already clued in to what was happening. It wasn't her first time. She did have Aki after all. She was pregnant. It wasn't hard to figure out once she thought about it. Her period was about two months late though she hadn't even noticed until now. Between the nausea and the slight moodiness that she'd been displaying recently. Pregnancy was the most likely outcome.

So she quietly followed the doctors orders and went for her tests and then for a scan after the results came back with a small smile on her face. Oliver and Lin didn't notice in their panic and followed behind her blindly, each one holding one of her hands tightly. They didn't even hear the doctors quiet congratulations when the results of the blood and urine came back before he had sent her to the scan.

The first that they registered of the happy news was when the ultrasound scan showed evidence of two sacks beating inside Mai's womb.

"Congratulations, looks like twins. Fracturnal obviously. Two different eggs. One is two days older than the other so you must have had a double egg release. Looking at the sack size I'd say you were approximately 8 weeks along."

Mai wished Luella had been there to take a photo of Lin and Oliver's shock.

Mai's pregnancy seemed to flow fast. The news of her pregnancy was well received by all told. Gene couldn't wait to become an uncle. Luella especially was happy to finally be getting grandchildren. If anyone wondered who specifically was the father, they kept quiet about it.

Lin and Oliver expanded their apartment in the SPR building by building a new level on top. They moved their personal rooms to the new level and rearranged the old rooms into nursery/bedrooms for the twins so that they would be closer. Gene took over one of the extra rooms since he spent more time being in a physical body during the day now that Mai was staying home and was now able solidify him regularly throughout the day.

Luella and Martin flew back to Japan once Mai hit her 30th week of pregnancy and took leave from her detective work. They rerented the same apartment they had before. Luella, Ayako and Masako arranged a baby shower for Mai in her 32nd week, thoroughly spoiling her in a way that she'd never had in the past. Having a family definitely helped to make things less stressful this time around and Mai didn't need fight to control her powers either like she had to last pregnancy.

In the very early hours one morning of her 38th week, Mai woke up to cramping. The usually very active twins had been strangely quiet the night before and the beachball she called a stomach had looked a lot lower before bed than it had been earlier in the day. Quietly, Mai lay there and waited. 40 minutes later, a second cramping began. They weren't overly painful yet so she breathed through it for now. She didn't want to wake up the two men at her sides just yet. Let them have their sleep.

She woke Lin and Oliver as the the dawn broke. The cramps were now around 20 minutes apart and getting more painful. Mai could no longer breathe through them. She needed to get up and move around. It was while she was making the men a cup of tea in the kitchen to help them clear their sleep muddled minds, that her waters broke. Neither man needed tea then to wake up properly.

A few phone calls later and a rushed trip to the maternity ward of the hospital had the entire SPR team plus Martin waiting in the waiting room for news. Lin, Oliver and Luella were in the hospital room with Mai supporting her labour. Late in the afternoon the new born cries of first one baby and then a second following it not more than 10 minutes later resounded in the air. An hour later the people waiting impatiently in the waiting room were finally allowed in the hospital room to greet the two newest members of the family.

A newly cleaned up Mai sat quietly in her bed with a smile watching the two men hold their new baby daughters. One baby girl showed features that very obviously took after Oliver. The other baby girl's features surprisingly took after Lin. When Mai had released two eggs at the beginning of her pregnancy, both men had managed to fertilise one each, sharing fatherhood like they did everything else in their relationship with Mai.

A week later, Lin, Oliver and Mai brought home their new daughters, Liu and Aoi Taniyama-Lin-Davis.


End file.
